Edward Terry Sanford

Edward Terry Sanford lived from July 23, 1865 to March 8, 1930 and was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1930. Before his nomination to the high court he served as a United States Assistant Attorney General under President Theodore Roosevelt from 1905 to 1907, and as a United States district judge for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Tennessee from 1908 to 1923; he remains the last sitting district court judge to be elevated directly to the Supreme Court. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Sanford practiced law in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, and as Assistant Attorney General rose to national prominence as lead prosecutor in the 1907 trial of Joseph Shipp, the only criminal trial ever conducted by the Supreme Court. Generally viewed as a conservative justice who favored strict adherence to antitrust laws, his most lasting impact on American law is his majority opinion in the landmark case Gitlow v. New York in 1925, which introduced the incorporation doctrine and helped pave the way for many of the Warren Courts later decisions expanding civil rights and civil liberties.