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{{Short description|US Supreme Court justice from 1870 to 1892}}
[[Image:Joseph Bradley.gif|right|thumb|150px]]
{{Redirect|Joseph Bradley|the United States Representative from New Hampshire|Jeb Bradley}}
⚫
'''Joseph Philo Bradley''' ([[March 14]], [[1813]] – [[January 22]], [[1892]]), was an [[United States of America|American]] [[jurist]], best known for his service on the [[United States Supreme Court]], and on the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed [[U.S. presidential election, 1876|1876 presidential election]].
{{Other people|Joe Bradley}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Joseph Philo Bradley - Brady-Handy.jpg
| office = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
| nominator = [[Ulysses S. Grant]]
| term_start = March 23, 1870
| term_end = January 22, 1892
| predecessor = Seat established
| successor = [[George Shiras Jr.|George Shiras]]
| birth_name = Joseph Philo Bradley
| birth_date = {{birth date|1813|3|14}}
| birth_place = [[Berne, New York|Berne]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1892|1|22|1813|3|14}}
| death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse = Mary Hornblower
| education = [[Rutgers University–New Brunswick|Rutgers University, New Brunswick]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}}
| signature = Joseph P. Bradley signature.svg
| caption = Bradley {{circa}} 1870s
| resting_place = [[Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)|Mount Pleasant Cemetery]]
}}

⚫
'''Joseph Philo Bradley''' (March 14, 1813 – January 22, 1892) was an American jurist who served as an [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|associate justice]] of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1870 to 1892. He was also a member of the [[Electoral Commission (United States)|Electoral Commission]] that decided the disputed [[1876 United States presidential election]].


==Early life==
==Early life==
The son of Philo Bradley and Mercy Gardner Bradley, Bradley was born to humble beginnings in [[Berne, New York|Berne]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. He was the oldest of 12 children.<ref name=lane>{{cite book|last1=Lane|first1=Charles|title=[[The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction]]|date=2008|publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company|Henry Holt]]|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0805089226|page=189}}</ref> He attended local schools and began teaching at the age of 16.<ref name="Appletons" /> In 1833, the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] of Berne advanced Joseph Bradley $250{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} to study for the ministry at [[Rutgers University]]. He graduated in 1836. After graduation, he was made Principal of the [[Millstone Academy]], and decided to study law.<ref name="Appletons">{{cite book|title=Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BqYoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA536|year=1893|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|page=536|access-date=June 3, 2018|archive-date=May 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510143132/https://books.google.com/books?id=BqYoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA536|url-status=live}}</ref>
Bradley was born to humble beginnings in [[New York]], and attended local schools. He began teaching at the age of 16, but was admitted to [[Rutgers University]] on the strength of his own studies, graduating from there in [[1836]]. After graduation he was made Principal of the Millstone Academy.


Not long afterward, he was persuaded by his Rutgers classmate [[Frederick T. Frelinghuysen]] to join him in [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] and pursue legal studies at the Office of the Collector of the Port of Newark. He was admitted to the [[Bar association|bar]] in 1839.
He was persuaded by his Rutgers classmate [[Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen]] to join him in [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] and pursue legal studies at the Office of the Collector of the Port of Newark. He was admitted to the [[bar (law)|bar]] in 1839.


Bradley began in private practice in [[New Jersey]], specializing in patent and railroad law, and he became very prominent in these fields and quite wealthy. Bradley remained dedicated to self study throughout his life and collected an extensive library. He also married in Newark, in [[1844]].
Bradley began in private practice in [[New Jersey]], specializing in [[United States patent law|patent]] and railroad law, and he became very prominent in these fields and quite wealthy. Bradley remained dedicated to self-study throughout his life and collected an extensive library. He married Mary Hornblower in Newark in 1844. In 1851, Bradley, once employed as an [[actuary]] for the [[Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company]], submitted an article to the ''[[Institute of Actuaries|Journal of the Institute of Actuaries]]'' detailing an historical account of a [[Severan dynasty]]-era [[Roman Empire|Roman]] [[life table]] compiled by the [[Roman law|Roman jurist]] [[Ulpian]] in approximately 220 AD during the reign of [[Elagabalus]] (218–222) that was included in the ''[[Digest (Roman law)|Digesta seu Pandectae]]'' (533) [[Corpus Juris Civilis|codification ordered]] by [[Justinian I]] (527–565) of the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|year=1915|title=The Documentary History of Insurance, 1000 B.C.–1875 A.D.|publisher=[[Prudential Financial|Prudential Press]]|place=[[Newark, New Jersey|Newark, NJ]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924030231736/page/n9/mode/2up 6–7]|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924030231736/mode/2up|access-date=June 15, 2021}}</ref>


==Appointment to the Supreme Court==
==Supreme Court==
===Appointment===
Bradley had occasion as a commercial lawyer to argue numerous cases before various national courts, earning him a wider reputation than he might otherwise have had. Thus in [[1870]] when a vacancy opened up on the [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]], he was sufficiently well known by associates of President [[Ulysses S. Grant|Grant]] to be recommended to him. He was nominated and confirmed by the [[United States Senate|Senate]], taking his seat on the court on [[March 21]], [[1870]]. On moving to Washington, Bradley purchased the home that had previously belonged to [[Stephen A. Douglas]].
On February 7, 1870, President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] nominated Bradley as an [[associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]],<ref name=RL33225>{{cite report| last=McMillion| first=Barry J.| date= January 28, 2022| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| publisher=Congressional Research Service| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> to the seat created by the [[Judiciary Act of 1869]]. Several weeks later, on March 21, he was confirmed by the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] by a 46–9 vote.<ref name=RL33225/> Bradley took the judicial oath of office on March 23, 1870, and remained on the Court until January 22, 1892.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| title= Justices 1789 to Present| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> Bradley was the president's second nominee for the position. The first, [[Ebenezer R. Hoar]] was rejected by the Senate.<ref name=RL33225/>


===Court jurisprudence===
Bradley remained on the bench until [[1891]], when he became greatly weakened by disease (possibly [[tuberculosis|consumption]]). He took his seat on the bench in [[October]] of that year, but was forced to retire a few weeks later by failing health. He died a few months later.
⚫
Bradley took a broad view of the national government's powers under the [[Commerce Clause]] but interpreted the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] somewhat narrowly, as did much of the rest of the court at the time. He authored the majority opinion in the [[Civil Rights Cases]] of 1883 but was among the four dissenters in the ''[[Slaughter-House Cases]]'' in 1873. His interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in both cases remained the basis for subsequent rulings through the modern era.
Bradley concurred with the court's decision in ''[[Bradwell v. Illinois]]'', which held that the right to practice law was not constitutionally protected under the [[Privileges or Immunities Clause]] of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bradley disagreed with the majority opinion, apparently because it rested on the decision in the ''Slaughter-House Cases'', but concurred in the judgment on grounds that the clause did not protect women in their choice of vocation. The concurrence is noted for Bradley's description of womanhood: "The harmony, not to say identity, of interest and views which belong, or should belong, to the family institution is repugnant to the idea of a woman adopting a distinct and independent career from that of her husband (...) The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."


It was due to Bradley's intervention that prisoners charged in the [[Colfax Massacre]] of 1873 were freed, after he happened to attend their trial and ruled that the federal law they were charged under was unconstitutional. This resulted in the federal government's bringing the case on appeal to the Supreme Court as ''[[United States v. Cruikshank]]'' (1875). The court's ruling on this case meant that the federal government would not intervene on paramilitary and group attacks on individuals. It essentially opened the door to heightened paramilitary activity in the South that forced Republicans from office, suppressed black voting, and opened the way for white Democratic takeover of state legislatures, and resulting [[Jim Crow laws]] and passage of disfranchising constitutions.
==Supreme Court Jurisprudence==
⚫
Bradley took a broad view of the national government's powers under the [[Commerce Clause]] but interpreted the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] somewhat narrowly, as did much of the rest of the court. He authored the majority opinion in the [[Civil Rights Cases]] of [[1883]] but was among the four dissenters in the [[Slaughterhouse Cases]] in [[1873]]. His interpretation of the Fourteenth amendment in both cases remained the basis for subsequent rulings through the modern era.


Bradley dissented in [[Wikisource:Transwiki:Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota|Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Minnesota]], which though not racially motivated was another [[due process]] case arising from the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]]. In his dissent, Bradley argued that the majority had in siding with the railroad created a situation where the reasonableness of an act of a state legislature was a judicial question, subjugating the legislature to the will of the judiciary. Bradley's opinion in this case is echoed in modern arguments regarding [[judicial activism]].
Bradley dissented in ''[[Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Minnesota]]'', which, though not racially motivated, was another [[due process]] case arising from the Fourteenth Amendment. In his dissent, Bradley argued that the majority had in siding with the railroad created a situation where the reasonableness of an act of a state legislature was a judicial question, subjugating the legislature to the will of the judiciary. Bradley's opinion in this case is echoed in modern arguments regarding [[judicial activism]].


Bradley also wrote the notable [[1890]] opinion in [[Hans v. Louisiana]], holding that a state could not be sued in a [[federal court]] by one of its own citizens.
Bradley also wrote the opinion in ''[[Hans v. Louisiana]]'', holding that a state could not be sued in a [[United States federal courts|federal court]] by one of its own citizens. This is perhaps ironic in light of his dissent in the railroad case, since the ''Hans'' doctrine is entirely based on [[judicial activism]] and, as Bradley admitted in his opinion, not supported by the text of the Constitution.


As an individual Supreme Court Justice, Bradley decided ''In re Guiteau'', a petition for [[habeas corpus]] filed on behalf of [[Charles Guiteau]], the assassin of [[President of the United States|President]] [[James A. Garfield]]. Guiteau's lawyers argued that he had been improperly tried in the [[District of Columbia]] because, although Guiteau shot Garfield in Washington, D.C., Garfield died at his home in New Jersey. Bradley denied the petition in a lengthy opinion and Guiteau was executed.
⚫
==1876 Electoral Commission controversy==
Though he was considered an intelligent and forceful judge, Bradley is best remembered as being the 15th and final member of the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed [[U.S. presidential election, 1876|1876 presidential election]] between [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] and [[American Democratic Party|Democrat]] [[Samuel J. Tilden]].


⚫
==1877 Electoral Commission==
A Republican since the early days of the party, Bradley was not an obvious first choice. The four justices charged with selecting the fifth and final justice (who, all realized, would be the deciding vote on the commission as all 14 other members were strictly partisan) initially chose justice [[David Davis]] for the job, but as Davis had just been elected to the [[United States Senate]] he was unable to join. The justices then settled on Bradley. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, though it is evident that Bradley was thought by his colleagues to be the most politically neutral; the court overall at that time had more Republicans than Democrats, however.
Bradley was the 15th and final member of the [[Electoral Commission (United States)|Electoral Commission]] that decided the disputed [[U.S. presidential election, 1876|1876 presidential election]] between [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Samuel J. Tilden]].<ref name=121NCC>{{cite web| last=Bomboy| first=Scott| date=January 4, 2021| url= https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/blog/looking-back-the-electoral-commission-of-1877| title=Looking Back: The Electoral Commission of 1877| location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| publisher=National Constitution Center| access-date=February 20, 2022}}</ref>


The [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House]] and Senate named five members each to serve on the commission, and the Supreme Court named five associate justices to serve. The key vote would fall to one of the named justices, [[David Davis (Supreme Court justice)|David Davis]], an [[Independent politician|independent]]. However, when Davis was elected to the Senate, he excused himself from the Commission and resigned from the Supreme Court to take his seat in the Senate. Bradley, a long time Republican, replaced him on the commission, shifting its political balance.<ref name=121NCC/>
Bradley wrote a number of opinions on the electoral commission and justified his votes to his own satisfaction; he sided with the Republicans on every case. Because of this he was vilified in the press and privately as well, even receiving a number of death threats at his home in Washington.

Bradley wrote a number of opinions while on the electoral commission, and like the other members sided with his own party. The final 8-7 vote, which split along partisan lines, effectively made Hayes president, and Bradley was characterized in the press as the "casting vote", or tiebreaker. Democrats, who had hoped that Bradley might side with their candidate, focused their anger on him rather than on his fellow Republicans on the panel. Press reports that criticized the decision singled out Bradley for vilification, and he received a number of death threats.

There have been detailed but unproven claims over the years that Bradley originally planned to come down on the side of Tilden, but was lobbied into changing his mind on the night before the final decision. These claims have been discussed at length in various studies of the electoral dispute. Bradley always denied that he had been improperly influenced by anyone.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

==Death==
Bradley died in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1892, and was interred at [[Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)|Mount Pleasant Cemetery]] in Newark, New Jersey.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments| last1=Epstein| first1=Lee| last2=Segal| first2=Jeffrey A.| last3=Spaeth| first3=Harold J.| last4=Walker| first4=Thomas G.| edition=6| year=2015| publisher=[[CQ Press]]| location=Washington, D.C.| chapter=Table 5{{hyphen}}10{{0|0}}The Deaths of the Justices| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o39ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=SA4-PA57| pages=4{{hyphen}}57–62| isbn=978-1-4833-7660-8}}</ref>

Bradley's personal, legal, and court papers are archived at the [[New Jersey Historical Society]] in Newark and open for research.

==''Damnatio Memoriae''==
In 2021, Rutgers University, Bradley's ''[[alma mater]]'', deleted his name<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bronx.news12.com/rutgers-officials-vote-to-change-name-of-bradley-hall-due-to-namesake-s-ties-to-racism |title=Rutgers officials vote to change name of Bradley Hall due to namesake’s ties to racism<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102144337/https://bronx.news12.com/rutgers-officials-vote-to-change-name-of-bradley-hall-due-to-namesake-s-ties-to-racism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://reason.com/volokh/2021/10/18/rutgers-university-cancels-justice-joseph-bradley/ |title=Rutgers University Cancels Justice Joseph Bradley - Reason.com<!-- Bot generated title --> |date=October 18, 2021 |access-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102144336/https://reason.com/volokh/2021/10/18/rutgers-university-cancels-justice-joseph-bradley/ |url-status=live }}</ref> from a building the university acquired in 1971; a University committee "recommended Bradley's name be removed after a study of his judicial record. The study showed Bradley chose to use his position as a Supreme Court Justice to undo reconstruction, regressing on civil rights and opening a new era of oppression".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201130101408/https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/about-us/have-you-met-rutgers-newark/bradley-hall Bradley Hall | Rutgers University - Newark<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
*Data drawn in part from the [http://www.supremecourthistory.org| Supreme Court Historical Society] and [http://www.oyez.org| Oyez].

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{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-new|seat}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]|years=1870–1892}}
{{s-aft|after=[[George Shiras, Jr.|George Shiras]]}}
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{{s-end}}

{{Election Commission}}
{{SCOTUS Justices}}


{{Authority control}}
<!-- Succession table -->
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{{start box}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States|Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court]]|before=''(none)''|after=[[George Shiras, Jr.]]|years=[[March 23]], [[1870]] &ndash; [[January 22]], [[1892]]}}
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{{end box}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Joseph Philo}}
<!-- Categories -->
[[Category:U.S. Supreme Court justices|Bradley, Joseph Philo]]
[[Category:1813 births]]
[[Category:American lawyers|Bradley, Joseph Philo]]
[[Category:1892 deaths]]
[[Category:1813 births|Bradley, Joseph Philo]]
[[Category:19th-century American judges]]
[[Category:1892 deaths|Bradley, Joseph Philo]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)]]
[[Category:Rutgers University|Bradley, Joseph Philo]]
[[Category:New Jersey lawyers]]
[[Category:New Jersey Republicans]]
[[Category:People from Berne, New York]]
[[Category:Rutgers University alumni]]
[[Category:United States federal judges appointed by Ulysses S. Grant]]
[[Category:1876 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]

Latest revision as of 01:23, 15 June 2024

"Joseph Bradley" redirects here. For the United States Representative from New Hampshire, see Jeb Bradley.
For other people named Joe Bradley, see Joe Bradley (disambiguation).

Joseph P. Bradley
Bradley c. 1870s
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
March 23, 1870 – January 22, 1892
Nominated byUlysses S. Grant
Preceded bySeat established
Succeeded byGeorge Shiras
Personal details
Born
Joseph Philo Bradley

(1813-03-14)March 14, 1813
Berne, New York, U.S.
DiedJanuary 22, 1892(1892-01-22) (aged 78)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeMount Pleasant Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
SpouseMary Hornblower
EducationRutgers University, New Brunswick (BA)
Signature

Joseph Philo Bradley (March 14, 1813 – January 22, 1892) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1870 to 1892. He was also a member of the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed 1876 United States presidential election.

Early life

[edit]

The son of Philo Bradley and Mercy Gardner Bradley, Bradley was born to humble beginnings in Berne, New York. He was the oldest of 12 children.[1] He attended local schools and began teaching at the age of 16.[2] In 1833, the Dutch Reformed Church of Berne advanced Joseph Bradley $250[citation needed] to study for the ministry at Rutgers University. He graduated in 1836. After graduation, he was made Principal of the Millstone Academy, and decided to study law.[2]

He was persuaded by his Rutgers classmate Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen to join him in Newark and pursue legal studies at the Office of the Collector of the Port of Newark. He was admitted to the bar in 1839.

Bradley began in private practice in New Jersey, specializing in patent and railroad law, and he became very prominent in these fields and quite wealthy. Bradley remained dedicated to self-study throughout his life and collected an extensive library. He married Mary Hornblower in Newark in 1844. In 1851, Bradley, once employed as an actuary for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, submitted an article to the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries detailing an historical account of a Severan dynasty-era Roman life table compiled by the Roman jurist Ulpian in approximately 220 AD during the reign of Elagabalus (218–222) that was included in the Digesta seu Pandectae (533) codification ordered by Justinian I (527–565) of the Eastern Roman Empire.[3]

Supreme Court

[edit]

Appointment

[edit]

On February 7, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant nominated Bradley as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,[4] to the seat created by the Judiciary Act of 1869. Several weeks later, on March 21, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a 46–9 vote.[4] Bradley took the judicial oath of office on March 23, 1870, and remained on the Court until January 22, 1892.[5] Bradley was the president's second nominee for the position. The first, Ebenezer R. Hoar was rejected by the Senate.[4]

Court jurisprudence

[edit]

Bradley took a broad view of the national government's powers under the Commerce Clause but interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment somewhat narrowly, as did much of the rest of the court at the time. He authored the majority opinion in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 but was among the four dissenters in the Slaughter-House Cases in 1873. His interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in both cases remained the basis for subsequent rulings through the modern era.

Bradley concurred with the court's decision in Bradwell v. Illinois, which held that the right to practice law was not constitutionally protected under the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bradley disagreed with the majority opinion, apparently because it rested on the decision in the Slaughter-House Cases, but concurred in the judgment on grounds that the clause did not protect women in their choice of vocation. The concurrence is noted for Bradley's description of womanhood: "The harmony, not to say identity, of interest and views which belong, or should belong, to the family institution is repugnant to the idea of a woman adopting a distinct and independent career from that of her husband (...) The paramount destiny and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."

It was due to Bradley's intervention that prisoners charged in the Colfax Massacre of 1873 were freed, after he happened to attend their trial and ruled that the federal law they were charged under was unconstitutional. This resulted in the federal government's bringing the case on appeal to the Supreme Court as United States v. Cruikshank (1875). The court's ruling on this case meant that the federal government would not intervene on paramilitary and group attacks on individuals. It essentially opened the door to heightened paramilitary activity in the South that forced Republicans from office, suppressed black voting, and opened the way for white Democratic takeover of state legislatures, and resulting Jim Crow laws and passage of disfranchising constitutions.

Bradley dissented in Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Minnesota, which, though not racially motivated, was another due process case arising from the Fourteenth Amendment. In his dissent, Bradley argued that the majority had in siding with the railroad created a situation where the reasonableness of an act of a state legislature was a judicial question, subjugating the legislature to the will of the judiciary. Bradley's opinion in this case is echoed in modern arguments regarding judicial activism.

Bradley also wrote the opinion in Hans v. Louisiana, holding that a state could not be sued in a federal court by one of its own citizens. This is perhaps ironic in light of his dissent in the railroad case, since the Hans doctrine is entirely based on judicial activism and, as Bradley admitted in his opinion, not supported by the text of the Constitution.

As an individual Supreme Court Justice, Bradley decided In re Guiteau, a petition for habeas corpus filed on behalf of Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James A. Garfield. Guiteau's lawyers argued that he had been improperly tried in the District of Columbia because, although Guiteau shot Garfield in Washington, D.C., Garfield died at his home in New Jersey. Bradley denied the petition in a lengthy opinion and Guiteau was executed.

1877 Electoral Commission

[edit]

Bradley was the 15th and final member of the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.[6]

The U.S. House and Senate named five members each to serve on the commission, and the Supreme Court named five associate justices to serve. The key vote would fall to one of the named justices, David Davis, an independent. However, when Davis was elected to the Senate, he excused himself from the Commission and resigned from the Supreme Court to take his seat in the Senate. Bradley, a long time Republican, replaced him on the commission, shifting its political balance.[6]

Bradley wrote a number of opinions while on the electoral commission, and like the other members sided with his own party. The final 8-7 vote, which split along partisan lines, effectively made Hayes president, and Bradley was characterized in the press as the "casting vote", or tiebreaker. Democrats, who had hoped that Bradley might side with their candidate, focused their anger on him rather than on his fellow Republicans on the panel. Press reports that criticized the decision singled out Bradley for vilification, and he received a number of death threats.

There have been detailed but unproven claims over the years that Bradley originally planned to come down on the side of Tilden, but was lobbied into changing his mind on the night before the final decision. These claims have been discussed at length in various studies of the electoral dispute. Bradley always denied that he had been improperly influenced by anyone.[citation needed]

Death

[edit]

Bradley died in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 1892, and was interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey.[7]

Bradley's personal, legal, and court papers are archived at the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark and open for research.

Damnatio Memoriae

[edit]

In 2021, Rutgers University, Bradley's alma mater, deleted his name[8][9] from a building the university acquired in 1971; a University committee "recommended Bradley's name be removed after a study of his judicial record. The study showed Bradley chose to use his position as a Supreme Court Justice to undo reconstruction, regressing on civil rights and opening a new era of oppression".[10]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Lane, Charles (2008). The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction. New York, NY: Henry Holt. p. 189. ISBN 978-0805089226.
  2. ^ a b Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events. D. Appleton & Company. 1893. p. 536. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
  3. ^ The Documentary History of Insurance, 1000 B.C.–1875 A.D. Newark, NJ: Prudential Press. 1915. pp. 6–7. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c McMillion, Barry J. (January 28, 2022). Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  5. ^ "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Bomboy, Scott (January 4, 2021). "Looking Back: The Electoral Commission of 1877". Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: National Constitution Center. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
  7. ^ Epstein, Lee; Segal, Jeffrey A.; Spaeth, Harold J.; Walker, Thomas G. (2015). "Table 5-100The Deaths of the Justices". The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments (6 ed.). Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. pp. 4-57–62. ISBN 978-1-4833-7660-8.
  8. ^ "Rutgers officials vote to change name of Bradley Hall due to namesake's ties to racism". Archived from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  9. ^ "Rutgers University Cancels Justice Joseph Bradley - Reason.com". October 18, 2021. Archived from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  10. ^ Bradley Hall | Rutgers University - Newark
Legal offices
New seat Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1870–1892 		Succeeded by
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