Tag: John Rutledge

While the nation was following the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, I was thinking of what I learned about politics and the Supreme Court in writing my latest. Consider John Rutledge, arguably the second chief justice. Rutledge had spoken against Jay’s Treaty, a controversial agreement with Britain that the Federalist party supported. He campaigned for John Adams for president and gave charges to grand juries that were (Federalist) political speeches. After the first Republican party (now the Democrats) swept Congress and the White House in the elections of 1800, Chase hung by a thread. The House impeached him at the end of Thomas Jefferson’s first term, and he was tried by the Senate in February 1805. Lame-duck veep Aaron Burr presided, despite having been indicted for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. In 1828 he ran for governor against Van Buren, who creamed him, so he stayed on as associate justice. John Marshall died that summer. When a new Senate, with a Democratic majority, met in December, Taney was confirmed as chief justice.