Judicial Management: The Achievements of Chief Justice William Howard Taft

Shortly after William Howard Taft's death in 1931, his successor, Charles Evans Hughes, accurately observed that Taft's career "fittingly culminated in his work as Chief Justice," because the "efficient administration of justice was, after all, the dominant interest of his public life" (1). This observation suggests an important distinction between associate justices and a chief justice. The primary task of associate justices is to decide cases and deliver opinions, whereas the work of the chief justice also includes administrative responsibilities for the judicial branch ofthe federal government. Taft's current obscurity strongly indicates that enduring professional reputation depends upon the former task, but not the latter. Indeed, when Felix Frankfurter praised Taft as a great "law reformer" and accorded him "a place in history...next to Oliver Ellsworth, who originally devised the judicial system," he unwittingly revealed what a very small place that is. It is, however, a very important one (2). Chief justices are typically evaluated by how well they employ their prerogatives to administer the day-to-day functioning of the Court. They are scrutinized for their handling of small emergencies and for their ability to dispose efficiendy of routinized institutional necessities like assigning opinions or moderating the Court's confer ences. Measured by these standards, Taft was a highly successful chief justice. He was ruthlessly efficient, moving heaven and earth to force the Court to diminish its embarrassingly large backlog of cases. Louis D. Brandeis remarked to Felix Frankfurter that Taft, "like the Steel Corporation, is attaining [all] time production records" (3). In the popular press it was said of Taft that "The spirit of speed and efficiency lurking in the corpulent form of an ex-President ofthe United States has entered the Court and broken up its old lethargy" (4). Within the Court the dominant image of Taft was not that of a disciplinarian, but rather of a man who could dispose "of executive details...easily" and "get through them without friction" (5). "The new Chief Justice makes the work very pleasant," Oliver Wendell Holmes said. "He is always good natured and carries things along with a smile or a laugh. (It makes a devil of a difference if the C.J.'s temperament diminishes friction.) He is very open to suggestions and appreciates the labors of others. I rather think the other JJ. are as pleased as I am" (6). Taft's genial and winning personality was particularly useful in managing the Court's potentially contentious conferences. Holmes said, "The meetings are perhaps pleasanter than I ever have known them?thanks largely to the C.J." (7). The justices also appreciated how "fairly" Taft distributed case assignments. Indeed, Harlan Fiske Stone later remarked that "there was never a Chief Justice as generous to his brethren in the assignment of cases" (8). Most importandy, Taft exercised a natural leadership within the Court. Supervising the ongoing institutional routines of the Court in this manner has been an essential task of every chief justice since John Marshall. Like Taft, some chief justices have fulfilled these challenges more successfully than others, but all have understood and accepted