William Johnson (judge)

For other people named William Johnson, see William Johnson (disambiguation).

William Johnson
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office March 26, 1804 – August 4, 1834
Nominated by	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Alfred Moore
Succeeded by	James Moore Wayne
Personal details
Born	December 17 or 27, 1771 Charleston, South Carolina
Died	August 4, 1834(1834-08-04) (aged 62) New York, New York
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Religion	Presbyterian

William Johnson (December 17 or December 27, 1771 - August 4, 1834) was a state legislator and judge in South Carolina, and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1804 to his death in 1834.

Youth and early career

Johnson was born in Charleston. His father, William Johnson, was a revolutionary, and represented Charleston in the general assembly of South Carolina. The elder Johnson was deported by Sir Henry Clinton to St. Augustine with other distinguished patriots of South Carolina. His mother, Sarah Johnson, née Nightingale, was also a revolutionary. "During the siege of Charleston, [she quilted] her petticoats with cartridges, which she thus conveyed to her husband in the trenches." The younger Johnson studied law at Princeton and graduated with an A.B. in 1790. He read law in the office of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney before passing the bar in 1793. In 1794, he married Sarah Bennett. They had at least one child, Anna Hayes Johnson, who was the second wife of Romulus Mitchell Saunders and mother of Jane Claudia Saunders Johnson (wife of General Bradley Tyler Johnson, Confederate Civil War General from Maryland.)

Work as a legislator

Johnson followed in his father's footsteps, representing the city of Charleston (and the nascent Democratic-Republican Party) in the state's house of representatives from 1794-1798. In 1796, he was selected as the speaker of the state house. In 1798, the formation of the state's highest court created a demand for judges, and Johnson was one of those selected to the position.

Appointment to the Court

Johnson was nominated to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court by Thomas Jefferson on March 22, 1804, as the successor of Alfred Moore. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 24, 1804, and received his commission on March 26, 1804. He was the first of Jefferson's three appointments to the court, and is considered to have been selected for sharing many of Jefferson's beliefs about the Constitution. Johnson was the first member of the U.S. Supreme Court that was not a member of the Federalist Party.

Independent judicial mind

In his years on the Court, Johnson proved to be a very independent mind: while the Chief Justice, John Marshall, was able to steer the opinions of most of the justices in most cases, Johnson still developed a reputation for dissent. Johnson's independence was further displayed in 1808 when he defied the orders of the Collector of the Port of Charleston, the United States Attorney General Caesar A. Rodney, and President Thomas Jefferson (the very man who had nominated Johnson to his position) because he felt that the executive branch's control of maritime trade was an overextension of its constitutional powers. (Johnson was nominated to be Collector of the Port of Charleston himself, on January 23, 1819, but ultimately elected to remain on the Court.)

Much later in his service on the court, during the Nullification Crisis in South Carolina from 1831–1833, Johnson again displayed his desire for independent thought by moving away from his residence in South Carolina, so as not to be swayed by the intensity of public opinion there.

Johnson died in 1834 in New York after surgery on his jaw.

See also

List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of United States Chief Justices by time in office

List of U.S. Supreme Court Justices by time in office United States Supreme Court cases during the Marshall Court

References

• William Johnson (judge) at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Further reading

• Abraham, Henry J. (1992). Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3. 
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books). ISBN 1568021267. 
• Flanders, Henry. The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874 at Google Books.
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L.. eds. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0791013774. 
• Hall, Kermit L., ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195058356. 
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0871875543. 
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590. ISBN 0815311761. 
• White, G. Edward. The Marshall Court & Cultural Change, 1815-35. Published in an abridged edition, 1991.

External links

• A very brief online biography
• William Johnson on Find-A-Grave

Legal offices
Preceded by Alfred Moore	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States March 26, 1804 – August 4, 1834	Succeeded by James Moore Wayne