Charles Evans Hughes won election as the Governor of New York in 1906, and implemented several progressive reforms.
87 Facts About Charles Evans Hughes
2.
Charles Evans Hughes served as an Associate Justice until 1916, when he resigned from the bench to accept the Republican presidential nomination.
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Charles Evans Hughes left office in 1925 and returned to private practice, becoming one of the most prominent attorneys in the country.
4.
The Charles Evans Hughes Court struck down several New Deal programs in the early and the mid-1930s, but 1937 marked a turning point for the Supreme Court and the New Deal as Charles Evans Hughes and Roberts joined with the Three Musketeers to uphold the Wagner Act and a state minimum wage law.
5.
Hughes's father, David Charles Hughes, immigrated to the United States from Wales in 1855 after he was inspired by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
6.
Charles Evans Hughes, the only child of David and Mary, was born in Glens Falls on April 11,1862.
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The Charles Evans Hughes family moved to Oswego, New York, in 1866, but relocated soon after to Newark, New Jersey, and then to Brooklyn.
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At the age of 14, Charles Evans Hughes attended Madison University for two years before transferring to Brown University.
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Charles Evans Hughes graduated from Brown third in his class at the age of 19, having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year.
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Charles Evans Hughes was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, where he served as the first international President later on.
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Charles Evans Hughes next enrolled in Columbia Law School, where he graduated first in his class in 1884.
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In 1888, Charles Evans Hughes married Antoinette Carter, the daughter of the senior partner of the law firm where he worked.
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Charles Evans Hughes left the firm and became a professor at Cornell Law School from 1891 to 1893.
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Charles Evans Hughes joined the board of Brown University and served on a special committee that recommended revisions to New York's Code of Civil Procedure.
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Hughes was reluctant to take on the powerful utility companies, but Senator Frederick C Stevens, the leader of the committee, convinced Hughes to accept the position.
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Charles Evans Hughes decided to center his investigation on Consolidated Gas, which controlled the production and sale of gas in New York City.
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Charles Evans Hughes's success made him a popular public figure in New York, and he was appointed counsel to the Armstrong Insurance Commission, which investigated the major life insurance companies headquartered in New York.
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Charles Evans Hughes's investigation showed that many top insurance executives had various conflicts of interest and had received huge raises at the same time that dividends to policyholders had fallen.
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Charles Evans Hughes called for an eight-hour workday on public works projects and favored prohibitions on child labor.
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Charles Evans Hughes was not a charismatic speaker, but he campaigned vigorously throughout the state and won the endorsements of most newspapers.
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Ultimately, Charles Evans Hughes defeated Hearst in a close election, taking 52 percent of the vote.
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Charles Evans Hughes's governorship focused largely on reforming the government and addressing political corruption.
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Charles Evans Hughes expanded the number of civil service positions, increased the power of the public utility regulatory commissions, and won passage of laws that placed limits on political donations by corporations and required political candidates to track campaign receipts and expenditures.
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Charles Evans Hughes signed laws that barred younger workers from several dangerous occupations and established a maximum 48-hour workweek for manufacturing workers under the age of 16.
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Charles Evans Hughes served the convention as its first president, beginning the task of unifying the thousands of independent Baptist churches across the North into one denomination.
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Charles Evans Hughes had previously been close with Roosevelt, but relations between Hughes and the president cooled after a dispute over a minor federal appointment.
27.
Taft won the Republican presidential nomination and asked Charles Evans Hughes to serve as his running mate, but Charles Evans Hughes declined the offer.
28.
Charles Evans Hughes considered retiring from the governorship, but Taft and Roosevelt convinced him to seek a second term.
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Charles Evans Hughes's highest priority was a direct primary law, and it repeatedly failed to pass.
30.
Charles Evans Hughes did obtain increased regulation over telephone and telegraph companies and won passage of the first workers' compensation bill in US history.
31.
Charles Evans Hughes's nomination was formally received by the Senate on April 25,1910, and the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably on his nomination on May 2,1910 and the Senate unanimously confirmed him the same day.
32.
Charles Evans Hughes, was sworn into office on October 10,1910, and quickly struck up friendships with other members of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice White, Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan, and Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
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Charles Evans Hughes voted to uphold state laws providing for minimum wages, workmen's compensation, and maximum work hours for women and children.
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Charles Evans Hughes wrote several opinions upholding the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce under the Commerce Clause.
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Charles Evans Hughes held that this law violated the Thirteenth Amendment and discriminated against African-American workers.
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Charles Evans Hughes joined the majority decision in the 1915 case of Guinn v United States, which outlawed the use of grandfather clauses to determine voter enfranchisement.
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Charles Evans Hughes led on the first presidential ballot of the convention and clinched the nomination on the third ballot.
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Charles Evans Hughes accepted the nomination, becoming the first and only sitting Supreme Court Justice to serve as a major party's presidential nominee, and submitted his resignation to President Wilson.
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Charles Evans Hughes's candidacy was further boosted by his own reputation for intelligence, personal integrity, and moderation.
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Charles Evans Hughes performed strongly in the Northeast and early election returns looked good.
41.
In March 1917, Charles Evans Hughes joined with many other Republican leaders in demanding that Wilson declare war on the Central Powers after Germany sank several American merchant ships.
42.
The next month, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war, and the United States entered World War I Hughes supported Wilson's military policies, including the imposition of the draft, and he served as chairman of New York City's draft appeals board.
43.
Charles Evans Hughes investigated the aircraft industry on behalf of the Wilson administration, exposing numerous inefficiencies.
44.
Charles Evans Hughes returned to private practice after the war, serving a wide array of clients, including five Socialists who had been expelled from the New York legislature for their political beliefs.
45.
Charles Evans Hughes sought to broker a compromise between President Wilson and Senate Republicans regarding US entrance into Wilson's proposed League of Nations, but the Senate rejected the League and the Treaty of Versailles.
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Charles Evans Hughes remained popular in the party, and many influential Republicans favored him as the party's candidate in 1920.
47.
Shortly after Harding's victory in the 1920 election, Charles Evans Hughes accepted the position of Secretary of State.
48.
Charles Evans Hughes told Harding he was uninterested in leaving the State Department, and Harding instead appointed former President Taft as the Chief Justice.
49.
Charles Evans Hughes favored US entrance into the Permanent Court of International Justice but was unable to convince the Senate to provide support.
50.
Charles Evans Hughes selected an American delegation consisting of himself, former Secretary of State Elihu Root, Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and Democratic Senator Oscar Underwood.
51.
Charles Evans Hughes hoped that the selection of Underwood would ensure bipartisan support for any treaty arising from the conference.
52.
Charles Evans Hughes decided to propose an arms reduction formula based on the immediate halting of all naval construction, with future construction limits based on the ship tonnage of each country.
53.
Kato eventually relented on the naval ratios, but Charles Evans Hughes acquiesced to the retention of the Mutsu, leading to protests from British leaders.
54.
Charles Evans Hughes clinched an agreement after convincing Balfour to agree to limit the size of the Admiral-class battlecruisers despite objections from the British Navy.
55.
Charles Evans Hughes won agreement on the Four-Power Treaty, which called for a peaceful resolution of territorial claims in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Nine-Power Treaty, which guaranteed the territorial integrity of China.
56.
Charles Evans Hughes favored a closer relationship with the United Kingdom, and sought to coordinate US foreign policy with Great Britain concerning matters in Europe and Asia.
57.
Charles Evans Hughes sought better relations with the countries of Latin America, and he favored removing US troops when he believed that doing so was practicable.
58.
Charles Evans Hughes formulated plans for the withdrawal of US soldiers from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua but decided that instability in Haiti required the continued presence of US soldiers.
59.
Charles Evans Hughes settled a border dispute between Panama and Costa Rica by threatening to send soldiers into Panama.
60.
Charles Evans Hughes was the keynote speaker at the 1919 National Conference on Lynching.
61.
Charles Evans Hughes stayed on as Secretary of State in the Coolidge administration after the death of Harding in 1923, but he left office in early 1925.
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Charles Evans Hughes returned to his law firm, becoming one of the highest-earning lawyers in the country.
63.
Charles Evans Hughes served as a special master in a case concerning Chicago's sewage system, was elected president of the American Bar Association, and co-founded the National Conference on Christians and Jews.
64.
State party leaders asked him to run against Al Smith in New York's 1926 gubernatorial election, and some national party leaders suggested that he run for president in 1928, but Charles Evans Hughes declined to seek public office.
65.
Hoover won the election in a landslide and asked Charles Evans Hughes to serve as his Secretary of State, but Charles Evans Hughes declined the offer to keep his commitment to serve as a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice.
66.
Charles Evans Hughes served on the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1928 until 1930.
67.
On February 3,1930, President Hoover nominated Charles Evans Hughes to succeed Chief Justice Taft, who was gravely ill.
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The nomination faced resistance from progressive Republicans such as senators George W Norris and William E Borah, who were concerned that Hughes would be overly friendly to big business after working as a corporate lawyer.
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Charles Evans Hughes quickly emerged as a leader of the Court, earning the admiration of his fellow justices for his intelligence, energy, and strong understanding of the law.
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Shortly after Hughes was confirmed, Hoover nominated federal judge John J Parker to succeed deceased Associate Justice Edward Terry Sanford.
71.
Charles Evans Hughes privately asked his old friend to retire, and Holmes immediately sent a letter of resignation to President Hoover.
72.
The early Charles Evans Hughes Court was divided between the conservative "Four Horsemen" and the liberal "Three Musketeers".
73.
In one of the first major cases of his tenure, Hughes joined with Roberts and the Three Musketeers to strike down a piece of state legislation in the 1931 landmark case of Near v Minnesota.
74.
Justice Sutherland's majority opinion, which Charles Evans Hughes joined, explained that the Constitution had granted the president broad powers to conduct foreign policy.
75.
Charles Evans Hughes worked behind the scenes to defeat the effort, rushing important New Deal legislation through the Supreme Court in an effort to quickly uphold the constitutionality of the laws.
76.
Charles Evans Hughes sent a letter to Senator Burton K Wheeler, asserting that the Supreme Court was fully capable of handling its case load.
77.
Charles Evans Hughes's letter had a powerful impact in discrediting Roosevelt's argument about the practical need for more Supreme Court justices.
78.
However, throughout 1937, Charles Evans Hughes had presided over a massive shift in jurisprudence that marked the end of the Lochner era, a period during which the Supreme Court had frequently struck down state and federal economic regulations.
79.
Charles Evans Hughes was joined by Stanley Forman Reed, who succeeded Sutherland, the following year, leaving pro-New Deal liberals with a majority on the Supreme Court.
80.
Charles Evans Hughes joined and helped arrange unanimous support for Black's majority opinion in Chambers v Florida, which overturned the conviction of a defendant who had been coerced into confessing a crime.
81.
Charles Evans Hughes began to consider retiring in 1940, partly due to the declining health of his wife.
82.
Charles Evans Hughes suggested that Roosevelt elevate Stone to the position of Chief Justice, a suggestion that Roosevelt accepted.
83.
Charles Evans Hughes retired in 1941, and Stone was confirmed as the new Chief Justice, beginning the Stone Court.
84.
Charles Evans Hughes lived in New York City with his wife, Antoinette, until she died in December 1945.
85.
When he died, Charles Evans Hughes was the last living Justice to have served on the White Court.
86.
Charles Evans Hughes is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.
87.
Charles Evans Hughes has been honored in a variety of ways, including in the names of several schools, rooms, and events.