131 Facts About Sherman Minton

Sherman "Shay" Minton was an American politician and jurist who served as a US senator from Indiana and later became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; he was a member of the Democratic Party.

Four years later, Sherman Minton was elected to the United States Senate.

Sherman Minton's campaign was denounced by his political opponents, and he received more widespread criticism for an address that became known as the "You Cannot Eat the Constitution" speech.

Sherman Minton was confirmed by the Senate on October 4,1949, by a vote of 48 to 16,15 Republicans and one Democrat voting against him.

Sherman Minton served on the Supreme Court for seven years.

An advocate of judicial restraint, Sherman Minton was a regular supporter of the majority opinions during his early years on the Court; he became a regular dissenter after President Dwight Eisenhower's appointees altered the court's composition.

In 1956, poor health forced Sherman Minton to retire, after which he traveled and lectured until his death in 1965.

Sherman Minton believed the Supreme Court should be more deferential to the political branches of government, and supported a broad interpretation of the powers of Congress.

Sherman Minton generally opposed any effort to rule federal legislation unconstitutional on the principle that the court was overstepping its authority.

When Sherman Minton became a Justice, the Senate had become more conservative, leading Sherman Minton to uphold the constitutionality and intention of conservative legislation.

Sherman Minton often played peacemaker and consensus builder during a period when the Court was riven by feuds.

Sherman Minton generally ruled in favor of order over freedom as a result of his broad interpretation of governmental powers.

Sherman Minton was born on October 20,1890, to John Evan and Emma Livers Sherman Minton, in their Georgetown, Indiana, home.

Sherman Minton was the third of the couple's four children, and was nicknamed Shay because of his younger brother's inability to properly pronounce "Sherman".

Sherman Minton received his basic education in a two-room schoolhouse in Georgetown, which he attended through eighth grade.

Sherman Minton was exposed to politics from an early age: when he was five years old, his father took him to hear a speech by William Jennings Bryan, whom Minton admired for the remainder of his life.

Sherman Minton later credited the incident with sparking his desire to become a lawyer.

Sherman Minton started at Edwardsville High School, but after that school closed, he attended New Albany High School for the remaining three years.

Sherman Minton helped start the school's first debate club, the Wranglers, which won several awards.

Sherman Minton worked in a local arcade, and during summer vacations returned to Fort Worth to work at the Swift plant.

Sherman Minton was briefly expelled from school after committing a prank in February 1908, and the superintendent, Charles Allen Prosser, let Minton return only after he formally apologized before the entire school.

Sherman Minton began dating Gertrude Gurtz, whom he later married, in his senior year.

Sherman Minton's classmates included such people as future Governor of Indiana Paul V McNutt and future presidential candidate Wendell L Willkie, both of whom later had substantial impacts on Minton's political career.

Sherman Minton graduated first in his class with an LL.

At Yale he took a constitutional law seminar with former President and future Chief Justice of the United States William Howard Taft, who is said to have described a paper Sherman Minton wrote as one of best ever written at the school.

Sherman Minton continued to improve his oratory and debate at Yale; he won the Wayland Club prize for extemporaneous public speaking, and helped organize the university's legal aid society.

Sherman Minton spent the summer of 1916 earning money as a platform manager on the Chautauqua lecture circuit.

In fall 1916, Sherman Minton returned to New Albany, where he renewed his relationship with Gurtz and opened a law practice.

Soon thereafter the United States entered World War I, and Sherman Minton quickly enlisted in the United States Army.

Sherman Minton took an officers' training course at Fort Benjamin Harrison in hope of earning a commission, but was not among those chosen to become an officer.

The Eighty-Fourth Division, to which Sherman Minton belonged, was dispatched to France in July 1918.

Sherman Minton's tasks included scouting roads to ensure safe transport of men and supplies.

Sherman Minton was in Versailles when the peace treaty was signed.

When Sherman Minton returned home, he decided to run for Congress in Indiana's 3rd district instead of immediately resuming his law practice.

The cuts received widespread media coverage, and Sherman Minton was credited in the reports with the success.

Sherman Minton launched a statewide campaign in August 1934 and began delivering speeches in defense of the New Deal.

Sherman Minton blamed Republicans for the conditions of the Great Depression.

Sherman Minton criticized Minton's support of the New Deal, which Robinson and Republicans called unconstitutional.

Sherman Minton stopped using the slogan and explained his position again using new terms, but his opponents continued to dog him over the issue.

Sherman Minton was made a member of a special Lobby Investigation Committee chaired by Senator Hugo Black, that was set up to look into questionable lobbyist groups.

Sherman Minton led the effort to counter Hearst and delivered a speech criticizing his support of the Republican Party.

In 1937, Senator Black was appointed to the Supreme Court and left the Senate, and Sherman Minton secured his post as chair of the committee.

For several weeks, Sherman Minton delivered speeches against Gannett in the Senate, and Gannett responded in kind in his newspapers.

Sherman Minton finally introduced legislation that would have made it "illegal to publish information known to be false".

Sherman Minton tried again to expose what he believed to be Republican control of the media.

Sherman Minton led the committee to target a newspaper with national circulation, Rural Progress.

Sherman Minton accused the publishers of improperly accepting large sums of money from corporations and the editors of undue influence from this money.

The owner of the paper, Maurive V Renolds, was summoned before the committee for a hearing, where Minton demanded to know why he was accepting money from corporations.

Sherman Minton did not realize that Frank was president of the University of Wisconsin, and soon suffered retaliation for the way he had treated Frank.

Sherman Minton made lengthy arguments accusing Minton of attempting to violate the Bill of Rights.

Sherman Minton was outraged, but the arguments had an effect among voters in Indiana.

Democratic Senator Edward R Burke led an effort to defeat the measure and privately accused Minton of damaging the Democrats' cause, which led Minton to leave the Lobby Investigation Committee.

Sherman Minton was a fierce partisan during his time in the Senate, and regularly abused his opponents verbally.

Sherman Minton responded with a range of accusations, some personal, against Dickinson and his "political naivety".

Sherman Minton accused the court of allowing itself to be influenced by political motives rather than the law.

In February 1937, before Sherman Minton introduced his bill, President Roosevelt introduced a plan of his own to deal with the Supreme Court.

Sherman Minton was pleased with Roosevelt's bill and quickly became its leading supporter in the Senate.

Sherman Minton delivered six radio addresses on behalf of his party in support of the bill, but public opinion could not be swayed in the Democrats' favor.

Sherman Minton received a death threat in the form of an envelope containing a shotgun shell and a message advising him to not vote for the court packing plan.

Sherman Minton was unhappy with the loss and it cost him considerable support among his voters, but as a result of his close connection with the bill and the leaders of his party, he gained more influence with the Democrats.

When Justice Willis Van Devanter retired from the Court in May 1937, Sherman Minton was among the final three candidates considered by Roosevelt to succeed him, but the senator declined due to concerns over the impact his recent public criticisms of sitting Court members would have on his relationships with them.

Sherman Minton made clear that his main targets were the anti-New Deal press including the Chicago Daily Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Many charged that Sherman Minton was trying to muzzle the critics of the New Deal through censorship.

Sherman Minton voted to override a presidential veto of a grant of $2.5 billion in bonus pay for World War I soldiers.

Sherman Minton supported Republican Leonidas Dyer's anti-lynching bill, which Roosevelt feared would cost the party support in the southern states.

Sherman Minton supported an extension of the Hatch Act of 1939, a law that prevented federal employees from being forced to take part in state election campaigns, effectively lessening the influence of federal patronage.

Sherman Minton opposed selling munitions and weapons to the Allies or the Axis powers.

Sherman Minton advocated and supported expanding the American military and believed that American entry into the war was inevitable, but should be delayed as long as possible.

Sherman Minton voted in favor of the Smith Act, which made it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the government, a law specifically targeted at communists and fascists in the United States.

Sherman Minton ran for re-election to his Senate seat in 1940.

McNutt was challenging Roosevelt for the Presidential nomination, forcing Sherman Minton to choose between the administration and his allies in the state party.

Sherman Minton sided with Roosevelt, which cost him McNutt's and the Indiana Democratic Party machine's support in his re-election bid.

The Republican presidential candidate, Wendell Willkie was a native of Indiana, and Sherman Minton faced a difficult challenge to win re-election.

Sherman Minton referred to Willkie as a "sycophant for the rich and famous".

Willis claimed that much of the legislation was unconstitutional and Sherman Minton's positions were detrimental to the nation.

Sherman Minton responded by pointing out Willis's connections to wealthy corporations and accused him of not caring for the people.

Sherman Minton's campaign focused on the achievements of the New Deal programs.

Sherman Minton claimed farm income in Indiana had doubled since 1932, and highlighted the passage of the Old Age Pension laws.

Sherman Minton served as one of the president's advisers and a liaison between the White House and Congress.

Sherman Minton was responsible for getting several officials appointed to high offices in the federal bureaucracy and numerous others appointed to lower ranking positions.

Sherman Minton convinced Roosevelt to support the creation of a Senate defense committee chaired by Truman, a position that brought Truman into the national spotlight and helped him gain the vice presidency.

Sherman Minton was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on May 12,1941, and received his commission on May 22,1941.

Sherman Minton resigned from his post in the administration, but even after he began working on the court, Sherman Minton remained active in Democratic politics behind the scenes and was in regular correspondence with Roosevelt to make patronage suggestions.

Sherman Minton took his oath of office on May 29,1941, but the court was in recess at the time.

Sherman Minton took his seat when it returned to session on October 7,1941.

The men on the court were close friends, and Minton developed a particularly close friendship with Judge J Earl Major; Major offered Minton financial assistance during his later illnesses.

World War II broke out shortly after Sherman Minton joined the court, creating a flood of cases in which legal precedent provided little guidance, including challenges to wartime measures, selective service laws, price controls, rationing and civil liberties.

Sherman Minton stated on several occasions his personal preference to affirm the decisions of the lower courts.

Sherman Minton believed that the court that heard the case and pronounced judgment was generally able to make a decision that was superior to appellate courts' decisions.

Sherman Minton believed the appellate process should be reserved for the more serious cases and cases where the lower court had clearly made a mistake.

Sherman Minton was described by William Radcliff as a "faithful disciple of judicial restraint," an unexpected development when compared to his overtly partisan political career.

Sherman Minton was in the majority in several cases filed to enforce decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board, usually to end worker strikes.

Sherman Minton wrote the majority opinion and sided with the majority to keep the injunction in place, but dryly mocked the counsel for the defense and the gambling law, stating:.

Sherman Minton even reminded us that our great idol, Mr Chief Justice John Marshall, in his day attended the horse races and wagered with his clergyman.

Sherman Minton declined because of his health, but he told Truman he would be interested in a seat on the Supreme Court.

In September 1945, Sherman Minton suffered a heart attack while in Washington; he was hospitalized for three months at Walter Reed Hospital.

Sherman Minton had already privately accepted the nomination several days earlier after a telephone conversation with Truman.

Sherman Minton wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee answering several of their questions, but refused to submit himself to a hearing.

Sherman Minton mentioned his broken leg and hinted in his letter that it could be detrimental to his health to travel in his condition.

Sherman Minton stated that, as a sitting judge and former member of the Senate, it would be improper for him submit to a hearing.

Sherman Minton responded to questions over his past support for the 1937 court packing scheme in the letter, declaring that as the Senate leader at the time of his scheme he had a right and duty to support the scheme, but as a federal judge his role had now changed to that of a referee rather than a player.

Sherman Minton's nomination faced intense questioning from Republican Senators on his past support for the failed 1937 court packing scheme.

Sherman Minton's opponents launched numerous delaying tactics; the Senate session before the vote to confirm Minton lasted until midnight.

In one decision, Sherman Minton stated that the right of free speech was not an absolute right, and could be regulated so as not to violate the rights of others.

In United States v Rabinowitz, Minton wrote the Court's opinion upholding a lower court ruling which allowed police to search automobiles without a warrant, provided there was probable cause to justify the search.

Sherman Minton's vote proved to be the deciding factor in cases regarding loyalty tests.

Gugin concludes that Sherman Minton had the strongest commitment to judicial restraint and ideological neutrality of any justice, past or present.

Sherman Minton wrote Truman several letters criticizing Justices Robert H Jackson and Hugo Black, referring to Black as a demagogue.

Sherman Minton offered advice on dealing with Republican opposition in the Senate.

Sherman Minton was lambasted in the media for his endorsement, which he attempted to retract a few days later after being advised to do so by other members of the Court.

Empirical coding of votes shows that Sherman Minton was the most conservative justice on the Court during his first year, and remained in the conservative half of the court for the duration of his career.

Sherman Minton did not enjoy the limited influence of his judicial role in the later years of his term, when he was more frequently in the minority in voting on cases.

Sherman Minton informed Eisenhower of his intention to retire in a letter on September 7,1956, in which he dryly stated his retirement was authorized by law.

Sherman Minton's anemia had steadily worsened, slowing him physically and mentally.

Sherman Minton returned to his New Albany home, where he took a much lighter workload.

Sherman Minton gave occasional lectures at Indiana University and continued to give public speeches from time to time.

For several years after retiring from the Supreme Court, Sherman Minton occasionally accepted assignments to serve temporarily on one of the lower federal courts.

Sherman Minton received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Louisville.

Sherman Minton took many trips around the United States, and two trips to Europe.

Sherman Minton was most concerned with President Eisenhower, who he believed was incompetent.

Sherman Minton remained in regular correspondence with Truman, and the two met on several occasions at Democratic Party functions.

In late March 1965, Sherman Minton was admitted to Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany, where it was found he was suffering internal bleeding.

Sherman Minton's wife was Roman Catholic; his funeral was held at the now-defunct Holy Trinity Catholic Church and was attended by many dignitaries, including several sitting members of the Supreme Court, the governors of Indiana and Kentucky, and several members of Congress.

Sherman Minton was buried in the Holy Trinity Cemetery, on Green Valley Road in New Albany, next to Leo Receveur.

Sherman Minton himself was nominally Catholic and had shunned Christianity for most of his life; he only began to occasionally attend mass following his retirement.

Sherman Minton left most of his personal papers and judicial records to the Truman Presidential Library.

Sherman Minton attended the dedication of the bridge at a 1962 ceremony.

Sherman Minton is the namesake of the annual Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition, held at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Gugin authored a work in rebuttal to Schwartz's harsh critique, saying that Sherman Minton's rulings were "predictable based on the principles of deference, precedent, and strict interpretation"; she attributed his poor ranking to the bias of reviewers in favor of judicial activism.

Since Sherman Minton, justices have tended to serve increasingly longer terms on the court, which has had strong political science implications on the Supreme Court.

Sherman Minton played an important role behind the scenes of the Court as a peacemaker between its two opposing factions.