# William Burnham Woods *American jurist and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1881–1887)* William Burnham Woods (August 3, 1824 – May 14, 1887) sat as an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1881 to 1887, after President Rutherford B. Hayes named him to the Court.[^1] He wrote two majority opinions that both read the Fourteenth Amendment narrowly.[^1] The first was *United States v. Harris*, on whether the Ku Klux Klan Act was constitutional. The second was *Presser v. Illinois*, on whether the Second Amendment applied to the states.[^1] Before joining the Court, Woods was a federal circuit judge for the Fifth Circuit, a post to which President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him in 1869.[^1] On that bench he read the Fourteenth Amendment more broadly than he later did on the Supreme Court, in the *Slaughter-House Cases* and *United States v. Cruikshank*.[^1] In another case he upheld "separate but equal" schools.[^1] Hayes nominated Woods in 1880, and the Senate confirmed him 39–8.[^1] Over his six-year tenure he wrote more opinions than any other associate justice. He fell ill in the spring of 1886 and died the following year.[^1] ## Early life, education, and career Woods was born on August 3, 1824, in Newark, Ohio.[^2] His father, Ezekiel S. Woods, was a merchant and farmer born in Kentucky, and his mother, Sarah Burnham Woods, came from New England.[^2] He studied first at Western Reserve College (now Case Western Reserve University), then moved to Yale University, where he finished as valedictorian in 1845.[^2] Back in Newark he read law with the lawyer S. D. King. After Woods was admitted to the bar in 1847, the two became partners.[^2] Some evidence suggests he began in politics as a Whig, but he later joined the [[Democratic Party (United States)]].[^2] In 1855 he married Anne E. Warner, and they had two children.[^2] In 1856 Woods became mayor of Newark. A year later he won a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Democrat and was made speaker at the start of his service.[^2] He at first opposed the Lincoln administration's policies. Once the Civil War began he backed the Union, pledging to stand with the federal government "in sunshine or storm, in peace or war, right or wrong".[^2] He entered the 76th Ohio Infantry Regiment in February 1862 as a lieutenant colonel. That September he became its colonel, replacing his brother, Charles R. Woods, who had been promoted to brigadier general.[^2] His service included the Battle of Shiloh, the Siege of Vicksburg and Sherman's March.[^2] He was promoted to brigadier general in 1865 and took part in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington.[^2] Generals Sherman, Grant and John A. Logan recommended him for a brevet as major general, which he received shortly before his discharge in February 1866.[^2] He then stayed in Alabama, where he had been serving, and practiced law and pursued commercial activities there.[^1] In 1868 he was elected to an Alabama state court on the Republican ticket.[^1] ## Circuit judge An 1869 law reorganizing the federal judiciary created nine new circuit judgeships.[^3] Grant named Woods to the Fifth Circuit, which covered Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and Woods took the oath on December 22, 1869.[^3] Little is recorded about why Grant chose him. Thomas E. Baynes Jr. suggests that three things each played a part: Woods's Republican politics, his military service with Grant, and his brother-in-law, U.S. Senator Willard Warner.[^3] Woods heard the *Slaughter-House Cases* in 1870 together with Justice [[Joseph P. Bradley]], who was riding circuit.[^3] In Bradley's opinion, both judges agreed that the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause should be read broadly. On that reading it protected civil rights tied to U.S. citizenship from infringement by the states.[^3] In *United States v. Hall* (1871), Woods upheld an indictment under the Enforcement Act of 1870. He held that the Fourteenth Amendment gave Congress power to protect freedom of speech and of assembly by legislation.[^3] In 1873 the Supreme Court decided the *Slaughter-House Cases* and rejected the broader reading Bradley and Woods had taken.[^3] *United States v. Cruikshank* (1874) was an Enforcement Act case arising from the Colfax massacre, in which scores of African-American men were killed.[^3] Bradley dismissed the federal charges against the perpetrators, and Woods dissented without writing an opinion. The case reached the Supreme Court on a certificate of division, and the Court affirmed Bradley's decision.[^3] In *Bertonneau v. Board of Directors of City Schools* (1878), a school segregation case, Woods set out an early version of what became the separate-but-equal doctrine.[^3] ## Supreme Court nomination When a Supreme Court seat opened in 1877, many political figures urged Hayes to choose Woods.[^4] They included Ohio figures such as James A. Garfield and John Sherman, Southern Republicans, and local business interests. Southern Democrats also backed him, among them John A. Campbell, Lucius Q. C. Lamar and John T. Morgan.[^4] Lamar, a former Confederate official, wrote that Woods "would be more acceptable to our people than any of those most likely to get the position".[^4] Hayes nominated [[John Marshall Harlan]] instead.[^4] In December 1880 the press reported that Justice [[William Strong (Supreme Court justice)]] meant to resign.[^4] Bradley wanted to take Strong's place as circuit justice for the Third Circuit. That would leave the Fifth Circuit post open, so a successor with experience in Louisiana and Texas law was preferable.[^4] The legal scholar Henry J. Abraham called Woods "precisely the kind of candidate Hayes sought to help bind bitter sectional wounds".[^4] Woods had been born in the North but lived in the South, and he was a Republican whom Southern Democrats trusted and supported.[^4] Strong submitted his letter of resignation on December 14, 1880, and Hayes nominated Woods the next day.[^4] Some objected that too many justices were coming from Ohio. Chase, Waite, Swayne, Woods and the rumored next nominee, [[Stanley Matthews (judge)]], were all associated with that state.[^4] The Senate confirmed Woods 39 to 8 on December 21, 1880, and he was sworn in on January 5, 1881.[^4] ## Supreme Court service Woods sat on the Court from January 1881 until his death in 1887.[^5] The Court had a heavy caseload, and he wrote more opinions than any other associate justice during his tenure.[^5] The source describes most of his majority opinions as arising in uncontroversial cases, often about real property, patents, taxation, commerce, municipal law, trusts or corporations.[^5] He took part in nearly 1,500 cases and dissented in eight. Baynes writes that he "clearly should be characterized with the majority of the Court".[^5] His votes generally favored national authority.[^5] He joined the *Juilliard v. Greenman* majority, which held that the federal government could lawfully print paper money. He dissented from *United States v. Lee*, which held that individuals could sue federal officers.[^5] In *Elk v. Wilkins*, the majority held that Native Americans were not U.S. citizens, and Woods joined Harlan's dissent.[^5] On the Supreme Court, Woods read the Fourteenth Amendment more narrowly and conservatively than he had on the Fifth Circuit.[^5] *United States v. Harris* (1883) involved defendants charged with breaking into a jail and beating four black prisoners, one of them to death.[^5] Writing for eight justices, Woods held that the amendment did not authorize laws barring private individuals from interfering with other people's civil rights. The Court ruled that the Ku Klux Klan Act exceeded Congress's power.[^5] *Harris* prepared the ground for the *Civil Rights Cases* later that year. There the Court ruled 8–1, with Woods in the majority, that much of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional.[^5] In *Presser v. Illinois*, a man had been convicted under Illinois law for carrying firearms as part of a private militia, and Woods wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court.[^5] Woods became ill in the spring of 1886 and died on May 14, 1887.[^1] ## Legacy Louis Filler opened a 1969 essay by calling Woods "one of the least known of all the Justices who have served on the United States Supreme Court".[^6] A 1970 survey of law professors rated him "below average".[^6] The legal scholar D. Grier Stephenson suggests that this rating "probably results more from general unfamiliarity than from a careful appraisal of his work".[^6] The historian Stephen Cresswell gives three reasons for Woods's low standing: his short tenure, how often he voted with the majority, and a view of him as a carpetbagger with a "muddled judicial philosophy".[^6] Timothy L. Hall described him as "more an echo of the reverberating ideas of others than an original thinker in his own right".[^6] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *William Burnham Woods* (revision 1376321452, retrieved 2026-10-26) — introduction: life dates, Hayes appointment and 1881–1887 service, *Harris* and *Presser* opinions, Fifth Circuit appointment and rulings, Alabama residence and 1868 state-court election, 39–8 confirmation, opinion output, illness in 1886 and death in 1887. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burnham_Woods [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *William Burnham Woods*, section "Early life, education, and career" (revision 1376321452, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, parentage, education, bar admission, party affiliation, marriage, the Newark mayoralty and Ohio House speakership, and military service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burnham_Woods [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *William Burnham Woods*, section "Circuit judge" (revision 1376321452, retrieved 2026-10-26) — the 1869 appointment and swearing-in, Baynes's account of the selection, the *Slaughter-House Cases*, *United States v. Hall*, *United States v. Cruikshank*, and *Bertonneau*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burnham_Woods [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *William Burnham Woods*, section "Supreme Court nomination" (revision 1376321452, retrieved 2026-10-26) — the 1877 vacancy and Harlan nomination, the December 1880 resignation and nomination, the 39–8 vote on December 21, 1880, and the January 5, 1881 swearing-in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burnham_Woods [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *William Burnham Woods*, section "Supreme Court service" (revision 1376321452, retrieved 2026-10-26) — opinion output, case counts and dissents, *Juilliard*, *Lee*, *Elk v. Wilkins*, *United States v. Harris*, the *Civil Rights Cases*, and *Presser v. Illinois*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burnham_Woods [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *William Burnham Woods*, section "Legacy" (revision 1376321452, retrieved 2026-10-26) — assessments by Filler (1969), the 1970 survey, Stephenson, Cresswell, and Hall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Burnham_Woods