Today in Supreme Court History: May 30, 1865

5/30/1865: Justice John Catron dies.

Justice John Catron

Comments

[JoeFromtheBronx]

The last battle of the Civil War had occurred a couple of weeks before, though a Confederate raider was still sailing the seas into the summer. From TN, Justice Catron did not resign to join the Confederacy like one Southern member of the Court.

(As a whole, the justices had a good record there, though Taney -- from a border state -- was clearly sympathetic to the Confederacy.)

Catron was on the Supreme Court for nearly thirty years. He campaigned for Martin Van Buren, though Jackson nominated him near the end of his term. He took his seat in May 1837.

Catron served as the first chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/john-catron/

Justice Catron was part of the majority in Dred Scott v. Sandford, though he did not agree with significant parts of the opinion. He did not think the question of citizenship was properly theirs to decide. Catron also rejected Taney's restrictive view of the reach of congressional power under the territory clause.

He held that the limit on slavery was unconstitutional on other grounds. Mostly forgotten now, Catron is still worthy of some study as a representative of his era.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Catron upheld, as a general matter, the power of Congress to legislate for the territories, even as to slavery. His reasoning was quite powerful.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford/Separate_Catron

Catron still ruled against the Missouri Compromise. He invoked the Lousiana Purchase Treaty. In selling Louisiana (with its very broad limits at the time) to the United States, France guaranteed certain Louisiana inhabitants (all of them, Catron thought) their "property," which to Catron meant slaves. So the Missouri Compromise violated a treaty. A treaty with France. Catron was quite the internationalist.

Catron cared nothing for the modern doctrine that, even if there was a conflict between a treaty and a later-enacted statute, Congress would enforce the statute. International good faith vis-a-vis France meant keeping slavery in France's ex-colony of Louisiana!

One minor detail Catron could have mentioned was that in 1848 Francy abolished slavery in its colonies. Yet, Catron would have us believe, it would have been a breach of faith with France unless, in 1857, the United States allowed slavery in the ex-French colony of Louisiana.

Did anyone even ask the French, in 1857, if they wanted slavery in Louisiana, an ex-colony, even though they'd abolished slavery in their *actual* colonies?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

"Louisiana," the ex-French colony, included much more than the American state of Louisiana. It included a whole bunch of Western territory. That's a lot of slavery.

Wasn't there talk, some years ago, of impeaching Justices who used foreign law to strike down American laws?

[Syd Henderson]

Oddly, Catron did not have a predecessor or successor on the Court. He was appointed to one of the new seats when the Court expanded from seven to nine seats in 1837. When he died, his seat was eliminated. This was apparently not due to Andrew Johnson being president since it was only a few weeks after Lincoln's assassination, but the Court did expand back to nine soon after Grant became President.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

The timing is more complicated.

Johnson officially nominated someone to replace him in 1866. The bill to reduce the number of justices came a bit later.

The reason for the legislation appears mixed. Some accounts suggest Republicans didn't want Johnson to be able to fill the seat. Or that this specific nominee was a problem.

Others note Chief Justice Chase supported fewer justices as a way to obtain a pay raise. Also, there was support for nine justices (there was a short-lived 10th justice) to avoid ties.

Without more, I'm inclined to think there were multiple factors involved.

https://www.fjc.gov/history/legislation/landmark-legislation-circuit-reorganization

Johnson also could make a recess appointment.