# Harlan F. Stone *American jurist; associate justice (1925–1941) and chief justice (1941–1946) of the Supreme Court of the United States* Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was a lawyer who sat on the Supreme Court of the United States for more than two decades. He was an associate justice from 1925 to 1941 and the 12th chief justice from 1941 until his death in 1946.[^1] Before joining the Court he was Attorney General of the United States from 1924 to 1925 under President Calvin Coolidge, who had been at Amherst College with him. As Attorney General he worked to reform the Department of Justice after the scandals of the Warren G. Harding administration, and he brought antitrust cases against large corporations.[^2] Stone grew up in Western Massachusetts and graduated from Columbia Law School. He then practiced in New York City, served as Columbia Law School's dean, and became a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell.[^3] In World War I he sat on the War Department's Board of Inquiry, which judged whether conscientious objectors held their views sincerely.[^4] His most quoted dictum is "Courts are not the only agency of government that must be assumed to have capacity to govern."[^5] His opinions for the Court in *United States v. Carolene Products Co.* (1938) and *United States v. Darby Lumber Co.* (1941) shaped later standards of judicial scrutiny. As chief justice he wrote the majority opinions in *Ex parte Quirin* and *International Shoe Co. v. Washington* (1945), and he presided in *Korematsu v. United States* (1944).[^6] ## Early years Stone's parents were Fred Lauson Stone and Ann Sophia (née Butler) Stone, and he was born on October 11, 1872, in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. At age two he moved with his family to Western Massachusetts, where he was raised and finished Amherst High School.[^7] His father wanted him to become a scientific farmer. Stone took classes at the Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1888 to 1890, until a scuffle with an instructor led to his expulsion at the close of his second year. He then went to Amherst College, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1894.[^8] He spent 1894–1895 as sub master of Newburyport High School in Massachusetts, where he also taught physics and chemistry. In 1895–1896 he taught history at Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn.[^9] ## Legal career From 1895 to 1898 Stone studied at Columbia Law School. He earned an LL.B. and joined the New York bar in 1898. He began practice in New York City at Wilmer and Canfield, a firm renamed Satterlee, Canfield & Stone around the time of William Nivison Wilmer's death in 1907. His partners there were Herbert Livingston Satterlee, later Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and George Folger Canfield, an early Columbia Law School professor. He afterward joined Sullivan & Cromwell as a partner.[^10] At Columbia he was a lecturer from 1899 to 1902 and an adjunct professor from 1902 to 1905. His pay started at $2,000 and rose to $3,000. He was dean of the law school from 1910 to 1923 and lived near the campus in the Colosseum apartment building.[^11] ### World War I For several months during World War I, Stone served on a War Department Board of Inquiry with Major Walter Kellogg of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate Corps and Judge Julian Mack. The board took up the cases of 2,294 men whose draft boards had refused them conscientious objector status. Its task was to decide whether each man's principles were sincere, yet it frequently spent only a few minutes questioning a man before reaching a decision. Most of the men either dropped their claims or were found insincere.[^4] Stone later wrote of the experience that "The great mass of our citizens subordinated their individual conscience and their opinions to the good of the common cause".[^12] ## U.S. Supreme Court ### Associate Justice After Justice [[Joseph McKenna]] retired, Coolidge nominated Stone to the vacant seat on January 5, 1925. The nomination was broadly welcomed. There were also rumors that Stone was being moved off the antitrust work by promotion, and some senators asked whether his Wall Street ties would make him serve corporate interests. Stone offered to answer the Senate Judiciary Committee's questions in person.[^13] The committee held a closed hearing on January 12, 1925, at which Willard Saulsbury Jr. testified, and it reported the nomination favorably on January 21. The Senate sent the nomination back to committee days later. On January 28, 1925, Stone appeared before the committee, the first Supreme Court nominee to testify at his own confirmation hearing. The committee again reported favorably on February 2.[^14] The Senate confirmed Stone 71–6 on February 5, 1925, and he received his commission that day. Chief Justice [[William Howard Taft]] swore him in on March 2, 1925. Stone was the only justice Coolidge appointed.[^15] On the Taft Court, Stone sided with Justices [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]] and [[Louis Brandeis]] in urging judicial restraint and deference to legislatures. On the Hughes Court, Stone, Brandeis and [[Benjamin N. Cardozo]] made up a liberal bloc, called the Three Musketeers, that usually voted to sustain the constitutionality of the New Deal. His majority opinions in *Carolene Products* (1938) and *Darby Lumber* (1941) influenced how courts set levels of scrutiny.[^6] ### Chief Justice When Chief Justice [[Charles Evans Hughes]] retired in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Stone to replace him, and the Senate confirmed him quickly. The Stone Court decided several World War II cases. In *Ex parte Quirin*, Stone's majority opinion held that a U.S. military tribunal had jurisdiction to try eight German saboteurs. His majority opinion in *International Shoe Co. v. Washington* (1945) shaped the law of personal jurisdiction. He was chief justice when the Court decided *Korematsu v. United States* (1944).[^16] ## Death Stone collapsed during an open session of the Supreme Court. Accounts differ on whether he had finished reading aloud his dissent in *Girouard v. United States*. Justice [[Hugo Black]] recessed the Court briefly and physicians were summoned. Stone died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 1946.[^17] ### Burial His grave is in Rock Creek Cemetery, in Washington, D.C.'s Petworth neighborhood. Justices [[Willis Van Devanter]], [[John Marshall Harlan]] and [[Stephen Johnson Field]] are buried nearby.[^18] ## Other activities and legacy Stone served as a director of the Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line Railroad Company and as president of the Association of American Law Schools. He belonged to the American Bar Association and, for 11 years, to the Literary Society of Washington.[^19] Amherst gave him an honorary M.A. in 1900 and an honorary LL.D. in 1913. Yale conferred an honorary LL.D. in 1924, and Columbia and Williams did so in 1925. Amherst's Stone Hall, finished in 1964, bears his name. He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1933 and of the American Philosophical Society in 1939. Columbia Law School gives Harlan Fiske Stone Scholarships for superior academic performance. Each fall Yale Law School presents the Harlan Fiske Stone Prize to the winners of its Morris Tyler Moot Court competition.[^20] ## Personal life Stone's brother, Winthrop Stone, served as president of Purdue University. In 1899 Stone married Agnes E. Harvey. Their sons were Lauson H. Stone and the mathematician Marshall H. Stone.[^21] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887, retrieved 2026-10-26), lead — birth and death dates; associate justice 1925–1941; 12th chief justice 1941–1946. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), lead — Attorney General 1924–1925 under Coolidge; Amherst link; Justice Department reform after the Harding-era scandals; antitrust cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), lead — upbringing in Western Massachusetts; Columbia Law School; New York practice; deanship; Sullivan & Cromwell partnership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Legal career: World War I" — Board of Inquiry members; 2,294 cases; brevity of interrogations; outcomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), lead — text of Stone's dictum on courts and the capacity to govern. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), lead — Taft Court and Hughes Court alignments; Three Musketeers; *Carolene Products* (1938) and *Darby Lumber* (1941); *Quirin*, *International Shoe* (1945), *Korematsu* (1944). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Early years" — birth date and place; parents; move to Western Massachusetts; Amherst High School. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Early years" — Massachusetts Agricultural College 1888–1890 and expulsion; Amherst College, 1894, Phi Beta Kappa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Early years" — Newburyport High School 1894–1895; Adelphi Academy 1895–1896. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^10]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Legal career" — Columbia Law School 1895–1898; LL.B.; New York bar 1898; Wilmer and Canfield / Satterlee, Canfield & Stone; partners; Sullivan & Cromwell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^11]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Legal career" — lecturer 1899–1902; adjunct professor 1902–1905; salary $2,000 to $3,000; dean 1910–1923; residence in the Colosseum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^12]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Legal career: World War I" — Stone's later summary of the Board experience (quoted). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^13]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "U.S. Supreme Court: Associate Justice" — nomination of January 5, 1925; reception; rumors; senators' Wall Street concerns; Stone's offer to testify. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^14]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "U.S. Supreme Court: Associate Justice" — Judiciary Committee hearing dates January 12, 21 and 28 and February 2, 1925; first nominee to testify. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^15]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "U.S. Supreme Court: Associate Justice" — confirmation 71–6 on February 5, 1925; commission; oath March 2, 1925; Coolidge's only appointment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^16]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), lead — 1941 nomination by Roosevelt to succeed Hughes; prompt confirmation; Stone Court wartime cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^17]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Death" — collapse in open session; *Girouard* dissent; recess called by Black; death April 22, 1946. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^18]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Death: Burial" — Rock Creek Cemetery; nearby graves of other justices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^19]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Other activities and legacy" — directorship, AALS presidency, ABA and Literary Society memberships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^20]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Other activities and legacy" — honorary degrees 1900–1925; Stone Hall (1964); academy elections 1933 and 1939; Columbia scholarships; Yale prize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone [^21]: Wikipedia contributors, *Harlan F. Stone* (revision 1381755887), "Personal life" — brother Winthrop Stone; marriage 1899; children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_F._Stone