Pierce Butler lived from March 17, 1866 to November 16, 1939 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 1939. He was notable for being the first Supreme Court justice from Minnesota and for being a Democrat appointed by a Republican president, was a staunch conservative regarded as part of the Four Horsemen, the conservative bloc that dominated the Supreme Court during the 1930s, and, a devout Catholic, was also the sole dissenter in the case Buck v. Bell, though he did not write an opinion explaining his dissent.
Facts
RoleAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1 Nationality / Jurisdiction BirthplaceDakota County, Minnesota, U.S. 1 Place of Death Classification
Field of Law Role
Role (category) FAQs
Did Pierce Butler agree with the Supreme Court in Buck v. Bell?
Butler was the lone dissenter in Buck v. Bell (1927) and wrote no opinion explaining it.
No. In the 1927 decision in Buck v. Bell, Butler was the only justice who dissented from the ruling and from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s opinion holding that the forced sterilization of an allegedly feeble-minded woman in Virginia was constitutional. Butler did not write an opinion explaining his dissent. Noting a dissent without an opinion was much more common in that era than it later became.
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Source Pierce Butler (Wikipedia)Lead sentence 1tier 2Quote, Lead sentence 1
Pierce Butler (March 17, 1866 – November 16, 1939) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1939.
Sources
1. Pierce Butler (Wikipedia)
WikipediaInfobox: birth_place
Dakota County, Minnesota, U.S.
Infobox: death_place
Washington, D.C., U.S.
lead sentence
Pierce Butler (March 17, 1866 - November 16, 1939) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1939.
Member Of: United States Supreme Court, Introduction
Pierce Butler (March 17, 1866 - November 16, 1939) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1939.
View the Source Wikidata: Pierce Butler
Wikidata Q1395635 self-citation (QID resolved for a previously unsourced jurist)
P31 (instance of): human; QID resolved and verified for this jurist (Pierce Butler)
- In Legal System: Law of the United States, Pierce Butler (March 17, 1866, November 16, 1939) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supr
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