# Wiley Rutledge *Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1943–1949* Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr. (July 20, 1894 – September 10, 1949) sat on the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] as an associate justice from February 15, 1943, until his death in 1949 at age fifty-five. President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose him to succeed [[James F. Byrnes]]. He was the ninth and last of Roosevelt's appointments to the Court.[^1] His jurisprudence centered on civil liberties. He read the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause and the [[Equal Protection Clause]] broadly, and he held that the whole of the Bill of Rights bound the states. Several cases he heard concerned how individual freedoms stood against the government's wartime powers.[^1] Rutledge was born near Cloverport, Kentucky, and earned a Bachelor of Laws in 1922. He practiced briefly in Boulder, Colorado. He then taught law and served as a law dean at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Iowa. In 1939 Roosevelt placed him on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.[^1][^3][^4] Scholars have generally rated him well, though his short tenure has limited his historical impact.[^8] ## Early life and education Rutledge was born on July 20, 1894, just outside Cloverport, Kentucky. His mother was Mary Lou (née Wigginton). His father, Wiley Blount Rutledge, was a fundamentalist Baptist minister from western Tennessee who had attended seminary in [[Louisville]] before taking a pulpit in Cloverport.[^2] After his mother contracted tuberculosis, the family left Kentucky for Texas and Louisiana and then Asheville, North Carolina. His mother died in 1903. His father then moved the family among temporary pastorates in Tennessee and Kentucky before taking a permanent post in Maryville, Tennessee.[^2] In 1910, at sixteen, Rutledge entered Maryville College, where he studied Latin and Greek, debated and played football. One of his Greek instructors, Annabel Person, later became his wife.[^2] He then moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to study chemistry, a period he later called among the "hardest" and most "painful" of his life.[^2] He received a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1922.[^1] ## Career Rutledge passed the bar in June 1922 and joined the Boulder firm of Goss, Kimbrough, and Hutchison. In 1924 the University of Colorado, his alma mater, hired him as an associate professor of law.[^3] In 1926 he accepted a full professorship at the law school of Washington University in St. Louis, where he stayed nine years. He was dean there from 1930 to 1935 and then spent four years as dean of the University of Iowa College of Law.[^3] He published only two law-review articles. The legal scholar William Wiecek reported that his former students remembered him as "dedicated and demanding".[^3] He spoke on public questions, supporting academic freedom and free speech at Washington University and opposing the Supreme Court's approach to child labor laws.[^3] During the New Deal-era conflict between Roosevelt and the Court, he condemned rulings that invalidated parts of the New Deal and backed the President's unsuccessful court-packing plan.[^3] That support brought him to Roosevelt's attention.[^1] ## Court of Appeals (1939–1943) When a Supreme Court vacancy arose in 1939, Rutledge was seriously considered, but Roosevelt filled the seat with [[Felix Frankfurter]].[^4] For the following vacancy Roosevelt chose [[William O. Douglas]], who had lived in [[Minnesota]] and Washington. At the same time he offered Rutledge a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which Rutledge accepted.[^4] The Senate confirmed him by voice vote on April 4, 1939, and he was sworn in on May 2.[^4] The court then heard appeals from the federal district court in Washington, petitions for review of agency decisions, and cases from the District's local courts.[^4] Wiecek wrote that Rutledge's 118 opinions there "reflected his sympathetic views toward organized labor, the New Deal, and noneconomic individual rights".[^4] The majority in *Busey v. District of Columbia* upheld Jehovah's Witnesses' convictions for distributing religious literature without obtaining a license and paying a tax. Rutledge dissented, writing that "[t]axed speech is not free speech".[^4] ## Supreme Court nomination Byrnes's resignation in October 1942 opened the ninth and final vacancy of Roosevelt's presidency.[^5] Frankfurter and [[Harlan F. Stone]] urged the appointment of Learned Hand. Roosevelt hesitated over the seventy-one-year-old Hand's age, because he had cited the justices' advanced age to justify his plan to enlarge the Court.[^5] Roosevelt asked Attorney General Francis Biddle to find a nominee. Those considered included Judge John J. Parker, Solicitor General Charles Fahy, Senator Alben W. Barkley and Dean Acheson. The journalist Drew Pearson then named Rutledge as "the candidate of Chief Justice Stone".[^5] Rutledge wrote to Biddle disclaiming interest in the seat. His friends, among them the journalist Irving Brant, kept pressing the White House on his behalf, and he said privately that he would not decline a nomination.[^5] Roosevelt nominated him, the Senate confirmed him by voice vote, and he took the oath on February 15, 1943.[^1] ## Supreme Court (1943–1949) From 1943 until his death in 1949, Rutledge wrote sixty-five majority opinions, forty-five concurrences and sixty-one dissents.[^6] A conservative bloc of Frankfurter, [[Robert H. Jackson]], [[Stanley Forman Reed]] and [[Owen Roberts]] faced a liberal bloc of [[Hugo Black]], Murphy, Douglas, Rutledge and, at times, Stone.[^6] The legal historian Lucas A. Powe Jr. called Rutledge "the sole member both personally liked and intellectually respected by every other member". The scholar Alfred O. Canon called him "the chief dissenter of the Roosevelt Court".[^6] Rutledge voted for individuals suing the government more often than any colleague. He pressed claims of equal protection, access to the courts, due process and First Amendment rights.[^6] He sided with Jehovah's Witnesses in *West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette* (1943) and *Murdock v. Pennsylvania* (1943). He wrote the majority opinion in *Thomas v. Collins* (1945). In *Everson v. Board of Education* (1947) he wrote a dissent supporting the separation of church and state.[^1] ## Personal life and death Rutledge and Annabel had a son, Neal, and two daughters, Mary Lou and Jean Ann. Raised Southern Baptist, he later became a Christian humanist whose religious views resembled Unitarianism.[^7] By the summer of 1949 he was exhausted, and his friends and family worried about his health. On August 27, in Ogunquit, Maine, he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and was hospitalized in nearby York Harbor. He died on September 10.[^7] Truman wrote to Annabel Rutledge that a "tower of strength has been lost to our national life". Chief Justice [[Fred M. Vinson]] called the late justice "true to his ideals and, in all, a great American".[^7] A. Powell Davies conducted the funeral at All Souls' Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., on September 14. His headstone at Mountain View Cemetery in Boulder marks an empty grave. As of 2008 his remains were at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland, pending his family's instructions.[^7] Murphy died at almost the same time. Truman named [[Sherman Minton]] and [[Tom C. Clark]] to the two seats, and the Court became considerably more conservative.[^7] ## Legacy Scholarly assessments of Rutledge's tenure have been generally favorable, though tempered by how short it was.[^8] Fowler V. Harper's 1965 biography placed him among justices "in the Great Tradition". In 1994 the political scientist A. E. Keir Nash likened calling him a great justice to calling John Kennedy a great president.[^8] A 1970 survey of judges and legal academics ranked Rutledge the twenty-fourth-greatest justice; a 1993 assessment placed him thirty-fifth.[^8] The scholar William G. Ross observed that "short tenure naturally tends to depress rankings".[^8] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (revision 1377416094, retrieved 2026-10-26), lead section — dates of life and service, Roosevelt appointment, civil-liberties jurisprudence, 1922 law degree, voice-vote confirmation and February 15, 1943 oath, Barnette, Murdock, Thomas and Everson opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Early life and education" — birth, parents, family moves, Maryville College, University of Wisconsin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Career" — 1922 bar and Boulder firm, Colorado, Washington University and Iowa posts, publications, New Deal positions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Court of Appeals (1939–1943)" — 1939 vacancies, April 4, 1939 confirmation, May 2 oath, 118 opinions, Busey dissent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Supreme Court nomination" — Byrnes's October 1942 resignation, Hand, Biddle's search, candidates, Pearson, Brant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Supreme Court (1943–1949)" — opinion counts, Court blocs, Powe and Canon assessments, voting record. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Personal life and death" — family, religion, 1949 stroke and death, Truman and Vinson tributes, funeral, burial, successors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wiley Rutledge* (retrieved 2026-10-26), "Legacy" — Harper (1965), Nash (1994), 1970 and 1993 rankings, Ross. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Rutledge