McKinley Administrations - McKinley and the Judiciary
McKinley and the Judiciary
McKinley appointed only one justice to the Supreme Court. In 1898 he nominated Joseph McKenna of California, who had previously served as McKinley's attorney general, to the High Court.
The two most important decisions the Supreme Court made during McKinley's term had to do with the tariff status of the former Spanish colonies that the United States had won in its war with Spain. They dealt with the question of whether or not Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were subject to the same high tariffs as other countries importing goods to the United States.
At the end of 1900 a series of cases came before the Supreme Court that attempted to answer this question, and the Court issued a confusing and often contradictory set of answers. In De Lima v. Bidwell (1901) the majority ruled that because Puerto Rico was not a foreign country, it was illegal to impose duties and tariffs on goods...
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