Today in Supreme Court History: February 2, 1790

2/2/1790: Justice William Cushing takes oath.

Justice William Cushing

 

Comments

[Dan Schiavetta]

Also today in 1795, Cushing quit being Chief Justice after holding the office for only six days.

Note: The problem was that broken adjusting handle on the CJ's chair. It wouldn't go down unless you farted on it. If you read his jurisprudence carefully he was very anti-bean.
This changed when Marshall took over. Cushing sat next to him for nine years (he was the senior Associate and sat next to him, and was the last of the original six to retire) and one had to fight fire with fire. (Literally, on one occasion, when Todd chose to light his pipe at an inopportune moment.)