Sherman Minton

Sherman Minton, (October 20 1890–April 9 1965) was a Democratic United States Senator from Indiana and an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Pre-judicial career

A native of New Albany, Indiana, Minton was born at 9172 State Road 64, Georgetown, Indiana, 47122. A bronze plaque is mounted along the stone wall in front of the house in honor of his birthplace.

Minton went overseas to serve as a captain in the infantry during World War I. After practicing law in New Albany for several years, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Indiana in the 1934 Democratic landslide. He was active in Democratic machine politics (the so-called McNutt machine), serving as a state commissioner of insurance. His success at saving Indiana citizens millions of dollars was an important factor in his election to the U.S. Senate.

Minton served in the U.S. Senate from 1935 until 1940. A staunch Democrat, he was a close ally of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Minton faithfully supported the New Deal and Roosevelt's “court-packing” plan, stands which cost him reelection in traditionally Republican Indiana in 1940.

Upon arrival at the Senate, he was seated next to fellow freshman Senator Harry S. Truman, with whom he formed a life-long friendship. Minton rose to the leadership positions of Deputy Whip and subsequently Whip, a unique accomplishment for a freshman senator.

Judicial career

Minton remained popular in Democratic Party circles for his party loyalty under political pressure, and Roosevelt appointed him to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1940. In 1949, President Truman, who had served with Minton in the Senate, promoted Minton to the Supreme Court, where he succeeded the deceased Justice Wiley Rutledge.

On the Court, Minton took a broad view of governmental powers, dissenting in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), which ruled unconstitutional President Truman's wartime seizure of the steel mills in order to avert a strike. He disappointed liberals by voting to uphold anti-communist legislation during the period of the "red scare," voting with the majority in 1951's Dennis v. United States to uphold the conviction of the leader of the U.S. Communist Party.

Much of his judicial philosophy revolved around attempting to ascertain and uphold the original congressional intent behind legislation. However, Minton abhorred racial segregation and provided a solid vote to strike down the school segregation practices at issue in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education.

The gregarious, backslapping Minton was popular among his colleagues on the Court, as he proved a soothing presence during a period on the Court marked by bitter personal feuds between strong personalities such as William O. Douglas and Felix Frankfurter. Minton did not, however, make much of a mark on the Court jurisprudentially, despite a reputation as one of the most scholarly of Justices. He served as a Justice until October 15 1956, when he retired from the Court for reasons of ill health, particularly the effects of pernicious anemia, which he indicated had slowed him down both physically and mentally. For several years after retiring from the Supreme Court, Minton occasionally accepted assignments to serve temporarily on one of the lower federal courts.

Since Minton's retirement, there have been no other justices who also served previously in the legislative branch of the U.S. government.

Education

After attending New Albany High School, the first high school established in the state of Indiana, he went on to attend and graduate from the Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington in 1915 and completed graduate work at Yale University in 1916. At Yale, one of his professors was William Howard Taft. He also studied international law at the Sorbonne while in France after the First World War.

Recognition

Minton is the namesake of the Sherman Minton Bridge which carries Interstate 64 across the Ohio River, connecting western Louisville, Kentucky with Minton's native New Albany, Indiana. Minton is also the namesake of the annual Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition held at his alma mater, the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington. He is also honored (along with another Indiana Senator) in the Minton-Capehart federal building in Indianapolis