Evening star., 1941-02-09
Appointed by Taft.

Gently, he had presided for time
over the Federal District Court in
New York.
Appointed by Taft.
Mr.. Van Devanter, who was ap-
pointed to the Supreme Court by
President Taft in 1910, left the court
under provisions of the statute per-
mitting justices over 10 who had
served 10 years to retire at full pay
of $40, 900 a year.
The retirement of Mr.. Van De-
vanter who had frequently voted
against New Deal legislation, came
shortly before the defeat of Presi-
dent Roosevelt's plan to add new
justices to the court.
Congress had been engaged in a
fierce controversy over the proposal
when Mr. Van Devanter electrified
political Washington on May l8,
1887, by writing Mr.. Roosevelt that
he planned to retire the following
June 2
Described by the administration
as a conservative. the jurist's de-
parture gave the President an op-
portunity to name a justice whose
views were known to be liberal"
Helped Defeat Court Bill.
This greatly increased the chances
that the court would continue to
support administration legislation
as it had been doing since the pre-
tin,, nntnror nn11uinnnH
number of legislators that the Presi-
dents court plan was not needed.
Mr.. Roosevelt appointed Senator
Black of Alabama to fill the va
cancy and the Senate did not pass
the court enlargement legislation.
On his retirement from the Court,
he went to his 788-acre farm near
Ellicott City, Md. where he took
life easy. Fishing and hunting were
his favorite sports and he sometimes
visited the Seigniory Club, a resort
for sportsmen on the Ottawa River
near Montreal He had also gone
to Texas on a hunting trip.
He had been recalled to the bench
for short time. when the pressure
of judicial business in the New York
Federal District became too heavy
for the judges there.
Made Reputation in West.
He began his career as a lawyer
in Marion. Ind. in 1881. and three
years later moved to the frontier
country Ct wyoming. 1t was in the
West that he made his early reputa-
ton as a lawyer.
He helped organize the Wyoming
territory for statehood and became
its first chief justice In 1897, he
came to Washington to serve as As
sistant Attorney General, in the
Mckinley administration.
Theodore Roosevelt appointed him
to a Federal Circuit judgeship in
1903 and President Taft promoted
him to the Supreme Court in 1910.
He took Office in 1911 and served
on the high court continuously until
his retirement Is years later.
His wife died in 1884. They were
married in 1883 and had two sons,
Isaac B. and WinSlow B. Van De-
vanter.
After October, 1886 IA other New
Deal causes were decided. Justice
Van Devanter voted for the admin
istration in 10 of these. His total
of IL for" and 16 against" was
exactly paralleled by Justice Suth-
erland with the other "conserva-
tives"
J,,.+;o, Won novopter uaS con-
sidered to be the courts leading
authority on Federal procedure and
OH land and irrigation laws. This
reputation rested on the foundation
of his early legal experience in
Wyoming.
He practiced the laws of the pub
lie domain as an attorney, ruled
upon Wyoming's statutes in the
same field as member of that States
Supreme Court, administered the
Federal statutes as legal officer of
the Department of the Interior and
construed them as a circuit judge.
Background of Antitrust Cases
In addition. he brought to the Su-
preme Court a background of anti
trust cases. He was one of the four
circuit judges who sat en- banc and
ordered dissolution of the Northern
Securities Co., thereby halting
merger of the Northern Pacific,
Great Northern and Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy Railroads in 1908,
and of the Standard Oil Co. in 1906.
Both decisions were upheld by the
Supreme Court.
He was born at Marion, Ind,
April IT, 1859, the son of Isaac and
Violetta Spencer Van Devanter. He
attended Indiana Asbury College,
now DePauw University, and was