Men in Black Read Free Page A

indeed, the only charitable view, which I can take of any of his conduct, is, that he is partially deranged at all times.” But Justice Baldwin nonetheless returned to active service on the Supreme Court, and remained a voting member of the Court for eleven more years until his death in April 1844 at age sixty-four. 6
     
     
    Robert C. Grier
    Appointed by James Polk in 1846, Grier suffered paralysis in 1867 and thereafter began a slow mental decline. Grier’s case is most troubling because he was the swing vote in one of the more important cases of his era, Hepburn v. Griswold , which struck down the law allowing the federal government to print paper money. “Grier’s demonstration of mental incapacity during the conference discussion was such that every one of his colleagues acknowledged that action had to be taken.” 7
     
    Nathan Clifford
    Clifford was appointed by James Buchanan in 1858. After a period of mental decline, Clifford suffered a stroke in 1880 just before the beginning of the October term of 1880. “Justice Miller described the situation bluntly: ‘Judge Clifford reached Washington on the 8th [of] October a babbling idiot. I saw him within three hours after his arrival, and he did not know me or any thing, and though his tongue framed words there was no sense in them.’” 8 Clifford kept his seat until his death in July 1881.
     
    Stephen J. Field
    Field, appointed by Lincoln in 1863, was one of the longest-serving justices. As Chief Justice William Rehnquist has written, at the end of Field’s service, he “became increasingly lame and often seemed lethargic to his colleagues. During the winter of 1896–97 his condition worsened, and his questions in the courtroom indicated that he had no idea of the issues being presented by counsel.” 9
     
    Joseph McKenna
    McKenna was appointed by William McKinley in 1897, and his mental faculties began to decline as he approached his eighties. After Chief Justice William Taft failed to convince McKenna that it was time to retire, Taft called a meeting of the other justices at his home. They decided they could not allow McKenna to cast the deciding vote in the Court’s decisions. From then on they agreed that if there was a split vote among them, they would change their votes and not allow the case to go forward. The Court did hold a few cases over until McKenna finally agreed to retire in 1924. 10
     
    James C. McReynolds
    McReynolds, appointed by Woodrow Wilson in 1914, was a notorious anti-Semite. He said he didn’t want the Court “plagued with another Jew.” 11 There is no official photograph for the Court for 1924 because McReynolds refused to stand next to Justice Lewis Brandeis, the Court’s first Jewish justice. He would leave the room whenever Brandeis would speak in conference. 12 He was also openly hostile toward the second Jewish justice, Benjamin Cardozo. “He often held a brief or record in front of his face when Cardozo delivered an opinion from the bench on opinion day.” 13
    A McReynolds law clerk, John Knox, also wrote that the justice disapproved of the fact that Knox had been polite to McReynolds’s African American servants, Harry and Mary. McReynolds told him:
     
    I realize that you are a Northerner who has never been educated or reared in the South, but I want you to know that you are becoming much too friendly with Harry. You seem to forget that he is a negro and you are a graduate of the Harvard Law School. And yet for days now, it has been obvious to me that you are, well, treating Harry and Mary like equals. Really, a law clerk to a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States should have some feeling about his position and not wish to associate with colored servants the way you are doing…. I do wish that you would think of my wishes in this matter in your future relations with darkies. 14
     
     
    Hugo Black
    Black, appointed by FDR in 1937, had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. 15 He stayed on the Court