# Charles Evans Hughes *American politician, jurist and diplomat; 11th Chief Justice of the United States (1930–1941)* Charles Evans Hughes (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was the eleventh chief justice of the United States, holding the office from 1930 to 1941.[^1] Before that he was the 36th governor of New York (1907–1910), an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] (1910–1916), and the 44th secretary of state (1921–1925).[^1] A member of the [[Republican Party (United States)]], he left the bench in 1916 to run for president and lost a close race to the Democratic incumbent, Woodrow Wilson.[^1] Hughes practiced law in New York City. In 1905 he led state investigations of the public utilities and the life insurance industry.[^1] President [[William Howard Taft]] put him on the Supreme Court in 1910. President Herbert Hoover returned him to it as chief justice in 1930, and in that role he and [[Owen Roberts]] cast the deciding votes between the Court's liberal and conservative blocs.[^1] ## Early life and family Hughes was the only child of Mary Catherine Connelly and David Charles Hughes. His father had come from Wales in 1855 and became a Baptist preacher in Glens Falls, New York, where Hughes was born on April 11, 1862.[^2] The family moved to Oswego, then Newark, then Brooklyn. Apart from a short time at Newark High School, his parents taught him at home until 1874, when he entered Public School 35 in New York City.[^2] He entered Madison University (now Colgate University) at 14, transferred after two years to Brown University, and graduated third in his class at 19.[^2] He then taught for a year in Delhi, New York. In 1884 he took a Bachelor of Laws from Columbia Law School, first in his class, and passed the New York bar examination the same year.[^2] In 1888 he married Antoinette Carter, daughter of the senior partner of the firm where he worked.[^2] ## Legal and academic career In 1883 Hughes joined Chamberlain, Carter & Hornblower, a Wall Street firm, and worked chiefly on contract and bankruptcy matters.[^3] He became a partner in 1888, and the firm took the name Carter, Hughes & Cravath.[^3] He taught at Cornell Law School from 1891 to 1893 and then returned to the firm.[^3] In 1905 Governor Frank W. Higgins appointed a legislative committee to examine the state's public utilities, and the committee chose Hughes to run the inquiry.[^3] He concentrated on Consolidated Gas, which controlled gas production and sales in New York City. The legislature then passed bills he drafted that set up a commission to regulate public utilities and lowered gas prices.[^3] He next served as counsel in the state's investigation of the life insurance industry.[^3][^1] ## Governor of New York President Theodore Roosevelt backed Hughes for governor in 1906 as the candidate to beat the newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst. Roosevelt called him "a sane and sincere reformer".[^4] Hughes campaigned for an eight-hour day on public works and for prohibitions on child labor, and he won with 52 percent of the vote.[^4] As governor he enlarged the civil service and gave the utility regulatory commissions more authority.[^4] He also obtained laws that limited corporate political donations and required candidates to account for campaign receipts and expenditures.[^4] He signed laws that kept younger workers out of several dangerous occupations and capped the workweek at 48 hours for manufacturing workers under 16. He then reorganized the New York State Department of Labor to enforce those laws.[^4] ## Associate Justice Associate Justice [[David J. Brewer]] died in 1910, and Taft offered the vacant seat to Hughes.[^5] The Senate received the nomination on April 25, 1910. On May 2, 1910, the Judiciary Committee reported it favorably and the Senate confirmed Hughes unanimously.[^5] Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller died before Hughes took the oath, and Taft made Associate Justice [[Edward Douglass White]] chief justice.[^5] Hughes was sworn in on October 10, 1910.[^5] Hughes was on friendly terms with White, [[John Marshall Harlan]] and [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]], but in deciding cases he usually voted with Holmes.[^5] He voted to uphold state laws on minimum wages, workmen's compensation, and maximum hours for women and children.[^5] His majority opinions in *Baltimore & Ohio Railroad vs. Interstate Commerce Commission* and in the 1914 *Shreveport Rate Case* sustained federal regulation of interstate commerce, including the hours of railroad workers.[^5] ## 1916 presidential election The Republican vote split in 1912, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the presidency that year. Several Republican leaders then pressed Hughes to run in 1916.[^6] At the June 1916 Republican National Convention he led on the first ballot and secured the nomination on the third. He then sent his resignation from the Court to Wilson.[^6] He remains the only sitting Supreme Court justice to become a major party's presidential nominee.[^6] Republicans had dominated presidential elections since [[Abraham Lincoln]] won in 1860, and Hughes was widely seen as the favorite. Wilson nonetheless won narrowly.[^6][^1] ## Secretary of State Hughes became secretary of state after Warren G. Harding won the 1920 election. He served under Harding and then Calvin Coolidge.[^7][^1] He favored U.S. membership in the League of Nations and the Permanent Court of International Justice, but neither came about.[^7] Instead he persuaded Harding to seek a separate peace treaty with Germany, which was signed and later ratified.[^7] He negotiated the Washington Naval Treaty, meant to head off a naval arms race among the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.[^1] He left office in early 1925.[^8] ## Return to private practice Back at his law firm, Hughes became one of the highest-earning lawyers in the country.[^8] He served as special master in a case over Chicago's sewage system and was elected president of the American Bar Association. He also co-founded the National Conference of Jews and Christians.[^8] He declined to run for governor of New York in 1926 and campaigned for Hoover in 1928.[^8] He then turned down Hoover's offer of the State Department in order to keep his commitment as a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice.[^8] He sat on that court from 1928 to 1930 and resigned when Hoover nominated him to the Supreme Court.[^9] ## Chief Justice Hoover nominated Hughes on February 3, 1930, to succeed Taft, who was gravely ill.[^10] Progressive Republican senators George W. Norris and William E. Borah resisted the nomination. They objected that his years as a corporate lawyer would make him too friendly to big business.[^10] The Senate Judiciary Committee held no hearings and reported the nomination favorably by 10–2 on February 10, 1930.[^10] On February 13, 1930, the Senate voted 31–49 against sending it back to committee and then confirmed Hughes 52–26. He took the oath on February 24, 1930.[^10] On the Hughes Court, Hughes and Roberts sat between the liberal "Three Musketeers" and the conservative "Four Horsemen".[^1] The Court struck down several New Deal programs in the early and mid-1930s. In 1937 the two joined the liberal justices to uphold the Wagner Act and a state minimum wage law.[^1] ## Retirement and death In retirement Hughes mostly stayed out of public affairs. He did review the United Nations Charter at Secretary of State Cordell Hull's request.[^11] After Harlan Stone's death, he recommended that President Harry S. Truman appoint [[Fred M. Vinson]] as chief justice.[^11] Antoinette Hughes died of a stroke on December 6, 1945.[^11] Hughes died of pneumonia and heart disease on August 27, 1948, aged 86, at Osterville, Massachusetts. At his death he was the last surviving member of the White Court. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[^11] ## Legacy On April 11, 1962, the centenary of his birth, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp in his honor.[^12] The Charles Evans Hughes House in Washington, D.C. was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1972. The Hughes Range in Antarctica is also named for him.[^12] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), lead section — offices and dates of service, the 1905 investigations, the 1916 result, the Washington Naval Treaty, and the Hughes Court's 1937 votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Early life and family* — parentage, birth, schooling, degrees and marriage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Legal and academic career* — law firm, Cornell appointment, and the 1905 utilities inquiry and resulting bills. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Governor of New York* — the 1906 election, Roosevelt's description, and the laws enacted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Associate Justice* — nomination and confirmation dates, oath date, and voting record. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *1916 presidential election* — the nomination, the resignation from the Court, and the race. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Secretary of State* — appointment, the League and court positions, and the German peace treaty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Return to private practice* — departure in early 1925 and activities to 1930. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice* — service 1928–1930 and resignation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^10]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Chief Justice* — the 1930 nomination, committee and Senate votes, and oath date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^11]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Retirement and death* — retirement activities, dates of death and place of burial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes [^12]: Wikipedia contributors, *Charles Evans Hughes* (rev. 1379062053, retrieved October 26, 2026), section *Legacy* — the 1962 stamp, the 1972 landmark designation and the Antarctic range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes