# Stephen Johnson Field *American jurist; Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1863–1897* Stephen Johnson Field (November 4, 1816 – April 9, 1899) was an American jurist. He sat on the United States Supreme Court as an Associate Justice from 1863 until 1897. Before that appointment he had been the fifth Chief Justice of California.[^1] Field's tenure is the third-longest of any justice. His nephew, [[David J. Brewer]], later joined him on the Court, and Field is the only justice to have served at the same time as a relative.[^1] ## Early life and education Field was born in Haddam, Connecticut. He was the sixth of nine children of David Dudley Field I, a Congregationalist minister, and Submit Dickinson, a teacher.[^1] His brothers included the attorney David Dudley Field II, the investor Cyrus Field, who created the Atlantic Cable, and the clergyman and travel writer Rev. Henry Martyn Field.[^1] He was raised in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. At thirteen he travelled to Turkey with his sister Emilia and her husband, the missionary Rev. Josiah Brewer.[^1] Field graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in 1837. While a student there he was among the original founders of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.[^1] He read law with Harmanus Bleecker in Albany and with his brother David in New York City, and was then admitted to the bar. He practised with David until 1848, when he left for California during the Gold Rush.[^1] ## Career in California politics and law In Marysville, California, voters chose Field as alcalde three days after he arrived. The alcalde was an office combining mayor and justice of the peace under the former Mexican legal order.[^1] Marysville had no jail, and moving prisoners to San Francisco was costly, so Field put the whipping post into use there.[^1] Yuba County sent him to the California State Assembly in 1850. He ran for the State Senate the following year and lost.[^1] Field was elected to the California Supreme Court in 1857 and served six years on that court. In 1858 Judge William T. Barbour, a fellow judge, challenged him to a duel; neither man fired at the dueling ground.[^1] In 1859 Field succeeded David S. Terry as chief justice. Terry had killed David Colbreth Broderick, a United States Senator from California, in a duel and had left the state.[^1] About thirty years later Field was sitting as a circuit judge of the 9th Federal Circuit Court. In that role he ruled against Terry in a divorce case and had him jailed for contempt.[^1] ## U.S. Supreme Court justice In March 1863 the Tenth Circuit Act raised the number of Supreme Court seats from nine to ten. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] filled the new seat by nominating Field on March 6, 1863.[^1] Lincoln was seeking regional and political balance on the Court, and Field was a westerner and a Unionist Democrat.[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed Field on March 10, 1863, and he took the judicial oath on May 20, 1863.[^1] Field set out to break [[John Marshall]]'s record of 34 years on the Court. His colleagues asked him to resign, but he refused.[^1] [[John Marshall Harlan]] urged him to retire and reminded him that he had once served on a committee pressing Justice Robert Grier to retire. Harlan recounted that Field answered: "Yes, and a dirtier day's work I never did in my life."[^1] Field wrote his last opinion for the Court in March 1896. He stayed on the bench for twenty more months and retired on December 1, 1897.[^1] He was the last justice from both the Taney Court and the Chase Court to remain on the bench. He held the record for longest service until [[William O. Douglas]], who sat from 1939 to 1975, passed it.[^1] Field died in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1899, and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery there.[^1] ## Jurisprudence Field wrote 544 opinions. Only Samuel Miller, John P. Stevens and [[Clarence Thomas]] have written more. By comparison, Marshall wrote 508 opinions during his 34 years on the Court.[^1] Field argued for substantive due process in his dissents in the *Slaughter-House Cases* and *Munn v. Illinois*.[^1] His *Slaughter-House* dissent relied on the Privileges or Immunities clause rather than the Due Process clause. His dissents in *Munn v. Illinois* and *Mugler v. Kansas* rested on the Due Process clause's protection of property interests.[^1] The Court's majority adopted his due-process views after he left the bench.[^1] Field wrote the majority opinion in *Pennoyer v. Neff*, which governed personal jurisdiction for the following century.[^1] He took part in decisions that struck down the income tax (*Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company*), narrowed antitrust law (*United States v. E.C. Knight Company*), and restricted the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission.[^1] He dissented in *Strauder v. West Virginia*. In that case the majority held that excluding African-Americans from juries violated the Fourteenth Amendment's [[Equal Protection Clause]].[^1] He joined the majority in *Plessy v. Ferguson*, which upheld racial segregation.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Stephen Johnson Field* (revision 1380010198, retrieved 2026-10-26) — establishes Field's birth, family, education, California offices, Supreme Court nomination, confirmation, oath, retirement and death, and his opinions and votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Johnson_Field