# David J. Brewer *Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1890–1910* David Josiah Brewer (June 20, 1837 – March 28, 1910) was an American jurist who sat as an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1890 to 1910. He was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison.[^1] On the Court he backed states' rights and opposed broad readings of Congress's power over interstate commerce. He also voted to invalidate economic regulations on freedom-of-contract grounds.[^1] The legal academic Owen M. Fiss named Brewer and Justice [[Rufus W. Peckham]] the "intellectual leaders" of the Fuller Court.[^1] Before reaching the Supreme Court, Brewer held elected judicial office in Kansas from 1862. He sat on the Kansas Supreme Court from 1870 to 1884, and President Chester A. Arthur then appointed him a federal circuit judge.[^1] Prohibitionists objected to his nomination to the Supreme Court, but the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 53–11.[^1] Most scholars have assessed him negatively, while a few have argued that his reputation as a reactionary should be reconsidered.[^1] ## Early life Brewer was born on June 20, 1837, in Smyrna, then within the Ottoman Empire and now İzmir, Turkey. He was the fourth child of Josiah Brewer, a Massachusetts-born Congregationalist missionary, and Emilia A. Field.[^2] His mother's brothers included the attorney David Dudley Field, the Supreme Court justice Stephen J. Field, the telegraph-cable developer Cyrus W. Field and the clergyman Henry M. Field. The family came back to the United States in 1838.[^2] Brewer entered Wesleyan University at fifteen and moved to Yale two years later. His Yale classmates included [[Henry Billings Brown]], later a colleague on the Supreme Court, and the future senator Chauncey Depew.[^2] At college he wrote letters to the editor, among them a denunciation of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. He received an A.B. degree with honors from Yale in 1856.[^2] He then read law in New York City in the office of his uncle David Dudley Field and afterward enrolled at Albany Law School.[^2] ## Career Brewer settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he worked briefly at a law firm and then opened a practice with a partner.[^3] In 1861 he was appointed commissioner of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kansas, an administrative post that involved issuing warrants and handling paperwork. During the Civil War he was a second lieutenant in the "Lane Rifles," a Union Home Guard.[^3] In 1862 he failed to win the Republican nomination for a state legislative seat. He then accepted the party's nomination for judge of Leavenworth County's criminal and probate courts and won the election at age twenty-five.[^3] In 1864 he was elected judge of the First Judicial District of Kansas, which covered Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties. In that office he held a general in contempt of court and ruled that a man who was one-quarter black had the right to vote.[^3] He was elected [[county attorney]] in 1868 and served until 1870, while also returning to private practice.[^3] ### Kansas Supreme Court (1870–1884) In 1870 Kansas Republicans nominated Brewer for the Kansas Supreme Court in place of the incumbent, Justice Jacob Safford. Brewer won the general election and was reelected in 1876 and 1882.[^4] Over fourteen years on that court he took part in decisions on segregation, property rights and women's rights.[^1] In 1884 President Chester A. Arthur appointed him a federal circuit judge.[^1] ### Supreme Court nomination Justice [[Stanley Matthews (judge)|Stanley Matthews]] died in March 1889, leaving a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. President Harrison took nearly nine months to choose a nominee and weighed forty candidates.[^5] He narrowed the list to two conservative Republicans from the Midwest: Brewer, who was supported by Senator Preston B. Plumb of Kansas, and Henry Billings Brown, a federal judge from Michigan.[^5] During the selection Harrison saw a letter in which Brewer suggested that Brown be appointed instead of him.[^5] Harrison announced the nomination on December 4, 1889. Prohibitionists objected, citing Brewer's opinion in *Walruff* as "conclusive proof of what we already fear".[^5] The Senate confirmed him 53–11, and he took the oath of office on January 6, 1890.[^1] ## Supreme Court (1890–1910) Brewer served on the Court for twenty years, until his death in 1910. [[Melville Fuller]] was chief justice for his entire tenure.[^6] Brewer participated in 4,430 cases. He wrote 539 majority or plurality opinions, 65 dissents and 14 concurrences.[^6] Brewer rejected the Court's 1877 decision in *Munn v. Illinois*, which had upheld state power to regulate businesses. He wrote: "The paternal theory of government is to me odious."[^1] He was in the majority in *Lochner v. New York* (1905), where the Court used substantive due process to invalidate a New York labor law. He was also in the majority in *Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.* (1895), which struck down the federal income tax.[^1] His majority opinion in *Muller v. Oregon* (1908) upheld an Oregon statute setting maximum working hours for female laborers. Writing for the Court in *In re Debs* (1895), he expanded the judiciary's equitable authority.[^1] Assessments of his jurisprudence differ. According to Paul, Brewer "held to a strictly conservative, sometimes reactionary, position on the Court".[^6] In 1994 the legal scholar J. Gordon Hylton accepted that "Brewer can fairly be labeled a conservative". Hylton nonetheless wrote that calling him a self-conscious defender of corporate interests or a laissez-faire disciple "is both unfair and inaccurate".[^6] ## Personal life and death Brewer practiced a liberal form of Congregationalism. He belonged to the American Bible Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.[^7] In 1861 he married Louise R. Landon, a Vermont native, and they had four children. Louise died in 1898, and three years later Brewer married Emma Miner Mott.[^7] Brewer had intended to retire at seventy in 1907 but did not, saying he was "too young in spirit". In 1909 President [[William Howard Taft]] wrote that Brewer was "so deaf that he cannot hear".[^7] On March 28, 1910, Brewer died after a massive stroke at his home in Washington, D.C. He was seventy-two. The Senate adjourned on March 29 in his honor.[^7] After a funeral at the First Congregational Church in Leavenworth, he was buried at Mount Muncie Cemetery in nearby Lansing.[^7] ## Legacy Fiss wrote that "History has not been kind to David Brewer". After the 1930s Brewer was almost never discussed favorably and was generally described as an ultra-conservative.[^8] Hylton wrote that revisionist historians "actually made Brewer seem even more of a reactionary figure than before". Semonche, Brodhead, Hylton and Purcell have favored reevaluating his reputation.[^8] Brodhead's 1994 biography concluded that Brewer "deserves to be remembered as an important figure of a much misunderstood period in the judicial history of the United States".[^8] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, lead section (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — dates of life and service, Harrison appointment, Kansas and circuit-court posts, Senate vote, oath date, principal opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^2]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Early life" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, parentage, Field relatives, education. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^3]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Career" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Leavenworth practice, 1861 commissionership, 1862 and 1864 judgeships, 1868 county attorney election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^4]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Kansas Supreme Court (1870–1884)" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — 1870 nomination over Safford; 1876 and 1882 reelections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^5]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Supreme Court nomination" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Matthews vacancy, selection process, December 4, 1889 announcement, prohibitionist objection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^6]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Supreme Court (1890–1910)" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — tenure, opinion counts, Paul and Hylton assessments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^7]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Personal life and death" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — religion, marriages, Taft's 1909 remarks, death and burial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer [^8]: Wikipedia, *David J. Brewer*, "Legacy" (revision 1378745584, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Fiss, Hylton and Brodhead assessments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Brewer