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6 Hous. L. Rev. 623 (1968-1969)
Reminiscenses of an Attorney General Turned Associate Justice

handle is hein.journals/hulr6 and id is 647 raw text is: HOUSTON LAW REVIEW VoLU=IE 6 MARcH 1969 NrER 4 REMINISCENCES OF AN ATTORNEY GENERAL TURNED ASSOCIATE JUSTICE MR. JUST CE Tom C. CLrm SUPRME CouRT oF THE UNITED STATES (RETIRED) It has been 179 years since the Supreme Court of the United States was first organized. During that time a total of 96 men have served on it; only 1ine have been former Attorneys General of the United States. Among the roster of the latter are two Chief Justices: Roger Taney who came to the Court in 1835 after serving as the 11th Attorney General and Harlan Fiske Stone who was first appointed as Associate Justice in 1925 and was elevated to the Chief Justiceship in 1941. He was the 52d Attorney General. The remaining seven were all Associate Justices of the United States. Nathan Clifford took his seat in 1848 after serving 2 years as President Polk's Attorney General. He went off the Court in 1881 and there followed a period of 18 years during which no former Attorney General sat on the Court. However, beginning in that year (1898) at least one former Attorney General was a member of the Court for 69 consecutive years. Joseph McKen- na was elevated to the Court from the Attorney Generalship in 1898 and was joined by William Moody, the 45th Attorney General, in 1906. In 1914 James McReynolds, President Wilson's Attorney General, took his seat. How- ever, Justice Moody had retired in 1910 so McReynolds' appointment only restored the former Attorneys General twosome (McKenna and McReynolds). By the time Attorney General Stone came to the Court Mr. Justice McRey- nolds was the only former Attorney General on that bench. In 1940 Roose- velt's Attorney General, Frank Murphy, was confirmed as Associate Justice. For the first time in history, three former Attorneys General sat on the Court at the same time. But their tenure was short, James McReynolds retired on January 31, 1941. However, the triumvirate was renewed on July 11th when Robert Jackson, the 47th Attorney General, joined the Court. They ,continued to serve until Stone's death in 1946. Justice Murphy died in 1949 but my appointment soon thereafter continued the service of two former Attorneys General on the Court, i.e., Justice Jackson and myself. We served together until 1954 when Jackson died and I remained-the only former Attorney General-until my retirement in 1967. At the opening of the Octo- ber 1967 Term of the Court, for the first time in 69 years the memhership did not include a former Attorney General.

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