# William Johnson (judge) *Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1804–1834)* William Johnson Jr. (December 27, 1771 – August 4, 1834) was a lawyer, legislator and judge from South Carolina. He sat on the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] for thirty years, from 1804 until his death in 1834.[^1] President Thomas Jefferson put him on the Court at age 32. He was the Court's first Jeffersonian Republican and the second justice drawn from South Carolina.[^1] On the Court led by Chief Justice [[John Marshall]], Johnson brought back the practice of seriatim opinions. He also wrote roughly half of that Court's dissents, which is why historians call him the "first dissenter."[^1] On economic questions he backed a strong national government, and he joined the majorities in *McCulloch v. Maryland*, *Gibbons v. Ogden* and *Fletcher v. Peck*.[^1] His federalist positions while riding circuit in South Carolina left him isolated in his home state. He moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1834 and died there that year after complications from surgery.[^1] Little scholarship on him existed until the 1950s and 1960s.[^1] ## Early life Johnson was born in St. James Goose Creek Parish, in what is now Berkeley County, South Carolina. His father, William Johnson Sr., was a blacksmith who had come to South Carolina from New York. His mother was Sarah Johnson (née Nightingale).[^1] His father helped lead Charleston's revolutionaries alongside Christopher Gadsden. After the siege of Charleston, British forces held both men prisoner in St. Augustine, Florida. The younger Johnson, his mother and his brother spent the rest of the Revolution in New York City.[^1] Johnson finished first in his class at Princeton University in 1790. He read law under Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and was admitted to the bar three years later.[^1] He was a Democratic-Republican and sat for Charleston in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1794 to 1800. He was Speaker during his final term, 1798–1800.[^1] In 1799 he helped enact a reorganization of the state judiciary. That same year he was named an associate justice of the state Court of General Sessions and Common Pleas, a seat created by his own reorganization.[^1] ## Supreme Court career Jefferson nominated Johnson on March 22, 1804, to replace [[Alfred Moore]]. The [[United States Senate]] confirmed him by voice vote on March 24, 1804, and he took the oath on May 7, 1804.[^1] Jefferson's stated reasons for the choice were these: - Johnson came from the same region as Moore. - He was healthy enough for the circuit travel the post then required. - He held Jeffersonian Republican views.[^1] He was the Court's first member who was not a Federalist.[^1] When his tenure began he was 32 years and 132 days old, which as of 2026 makes him the youngest justice to start service. [[Joseph Story]] was younger when nominated in 1811 but was eight days older than Johnson at the start of his tenure.[^1] Between 1805 and 1833 Johnson wrote close to half of the Court's dissenting opinions.[^1] He wrote for the majority in only two major cases: - *United States v. Hudson and Goodwin* (1812), which held that federal courts had no power to create common-law crimes. - *Mechanics' Bank of Alexandria v. Bank of Columbia* (1820).[^1] He also wrote hundreds of majority opinions in minor admiralty, land and insurance cases.[^1] ## Career as author In 1822 Johnson published *Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene*, a two-volume study of the Revolutionary War major general. The work failed both financially and with critics when it appeared.[^1] In 1964 the historian Craig Newton placed the volumes within the historiography of South Carolina.[^1] One letter in Andrew Jackson's correspondence mentions Johnson, and in it Jackson suggests the justice could not be trusted to write a friend's biography.[^1] ## Death and historic appraisal After the nullification crisis of 1832–1833, Johnson was shunned in South Carolina. Once he fell seriously ill in 1834, he moved his residence to Brooklyn.[^1] He had been warned beforehand that an operation on his jaw to treat an infection would likely kill him. He went ahead with it and died on August 4, 1834.[^1] Accounts often place his burial at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Charleston, where a large statue of him stands. The church, however, has no record that he was interred there.[^1] Historians disagree about his legacy: - His constitutional positions are generally counted on the losing side of the debates of his era. - Sandra Vanburkleo judged that he fell "short of greatness." - Fred Rodell called him "the most underrated of all justices."[^1] The only book-length biography is Donald G. Morgan's, published in 1954. It prompted later work on Johnson's dissents, republicanism and independence.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *William Johnson (judge)* (revid 1368364012, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, family, education, South Carolina legislative and judicial service, nomination, confirmation and swearing-in dates, dissents, majority opinions, authorship, death and historical appraisal of the justice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Johnson_(judge)