Sherman Minton

Sherman Shay Minton lived from October 20, 1890 to April 9, 1965 and was an American politician and jurist, a Democrat who served as a United States senator from Indiana and later as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After college, law school and service as a captain in World War I, he became a utility commissioner under Indiana Governor Paul V. McNutt before winning election to the Senate in 1934, where he defended New Deal legislation and championed Franklin D. Roosevelts unsuccessful court packing plan as one of Roosevelts top Senate allies. After losing reelection in 1940, Roosevelt appointed him a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and after Roosevelts death President Harry S. Truman, a close friend from their years together in the Senate, nominated him to the Supreme Court, where he was confirmed in October 1949. He served seven years, generally supporting majority opinions early on and becoming a regular dissenter as Eisenhower appointees altered the Courts composition, believing the Court should defer broadly to the political branches of government. He retired in 1956 for poor health and died in 1965. To date he is the last sitting member of Congress ever named to the Supreme Court, and the Sherman Minton Bridge in southern Indiana was later named in his honor.