# Horace Harmon Lurton *Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1910–1914)* Horace Harmon Lurton (February 26, 1844 – July 12, 1914) sat as an Associate Justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]. Before that he held a federal circuit judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit.[^1] He took the oath as a justice on January 3, 1910, and remained on the Court until his death on July 12, 1914.[^2][^4] Lurton's judicial career began in Tennessee. He was a state chancellor and then a justice and, briefly, chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. President Grover Cleveland nominated him to the Sixth Circuit in 1893, and President [[William Howard Taft]] nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1909.[^1][^2] He was 65 when first appointed, which made him the oldest person ever initially appointed an associate justice.[^2] On the Court, Lurton most often voted alongside Associate Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]] He wrote the opinion of the Court in *Coyle v. Smith*, 221 U.S. 559 (1911), which concerned whether federal authority extended to the location of a state's capital.[^3] ## Early life Lurton was born in Newport, Kentucky, on February 26, 1844. He studied at the Old University of Chicago. In 1867 he earned a Bachelor of Laws at Cumberland School of Law, which then belonged to Cumberland University and is now part of Samford University.[^1] At 17 he joined the Confederate States Army as a Sergeant Major in the 5th Tennessee Infantry. He left that unit because of ill health. From 1862 to 1865 he served as a private in the 2nd Kentucky Infantry and the 3rd Kentucky Cavalry.[^1] Union forces captured him on two occasions. After the second capture he was held as a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island Prison Camp in Sandusky Bay, Ohio.[^1] Lurton later said President Lincoln had paroled him after his mother pleaded for mercy. The historian Roger Long examined the evidence in the December 1994 issue of *Civil War Times*. Long concluded that Lurton was released from Johnson's Island when he signed the oath of allegiance, not because of any presidential act. Long described the parole story as an anecdote Lurton often told dinner guests.[^1] From 1867 to 1875 Lurton practiced law privately in Clarksville, Tennessee. He then served from 1875 to 1878 as Chancellor of the Tennessee Chancery Court for the Sixth Judicial District. He returned to private practice in Clarksville from 1878 to 1886.[^1] From 1886 to 1893 he sat on the Tennessee Supreme Court. That court elected him chief justice on January 17, 1893, as successor to Peter Turney. He held the post for only two months.[^1] ## U.S. Circuit Court On March 22, 1893, President Grover Cleveland nominated Lurton to a joint seat on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Sixth Circuit's Circuit Courts. Judge Howell Edmunds Jackson had vacated the seat.[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed the nomination on March 27, 1893, and Lurton was commissioned that day. His circuit service ended on December 20, 1909, when he was elevated to the Supreme Court.[^1] While still on the Sixth Circuit, Lurton was also Dean of Vanderbilt University's law department from 1905 to 1909.[^1] ## U.S. Supreme Court On December 13, 1909, Taft sent Lurton's nomination as associate justice to the Senate. Lurton was to fill the seat of [[Rufus W. Peckham]].[^2] The Senate confirmed him on December 20, 1909, and he was sworn in on January 3, 1910. His age at that first appointment, 65, is the highest of any associate justice.[^2] Lurton held three circuit assignments as a justice: - Second Circuit, January 10, 1910, to January 8, 1911. - Third Circuit, January 9, 1911, to March 17, 1912. - Seventh Circuit, March 18, 1912, to his death on July 12, 1914.[^2] The justice Lurton joined most often was Holmes.[^3] In *Coyle v. Smith* (1911), Lurton's opinion for the Court held that the federal government lacked power to dictate where a state places its capital. The opinion rested on the principle that every state stands on "equal footing."[^3] ## Death Lurton served about four years on the Court. A heart attack killed him in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on July 12, 1914. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville, Tennessee.[^4] ## Legacy and honors During World War II, a Liberty ship named SS *Horace H. Lurton* was built in his honor at Brunswick, Georgia.[^4] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *Horace Harmon Lurton* (rev. 1352643252, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, education, Civil War service and parole account, Tennessee career, Sixth Circuit nomination, confirmation, commission and Vanderbilt deanship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Harmon_Lurton [^2]: Wikipedia, *Horace Harmon Lurton* (rev. 1352643252, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Supreme Court nomination, confirmation, swearing-in, age at appointment and circuit-justice assignments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Harmon_Lurton [^3]: Wikipedia, *Horace Harmon Lurton* (rev. 1352643252, retrieved 2026-10-26) — voting alignment with Holmes and *Coyle v. Smith*, 221 U.S. 559 (1911). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Harmon_Lurton [^4]: Wikipedia, *Horace Harmon Lurton* (rev. 1352643252, retrieved 2026-10-26) — death, place of death and burial, and the Liberty ship named for him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Harmon_Lurton