John Rutledge Supreme Court nominations

{{Infobox SCOTUS nomination

| nomination = John Rutledge 1789 Supreme Court nomination

| image =

| image_alt =

| nominee = John Rutledge

| nominated_by = George Washington (president of the United States)

| status =

| outcome = Confirmed by the U.S. Senate

| date_nominated = September 24, 1789

| date_confirmed = September 24, 1789

| start =

| end =

| succeeding = Associate judgeship established

| header_votes =

| vote1 = Senate confirmation vote

| votes_favor1 =

| votes_against1 =

| present1 =

| not_voting1 =

| result1 = Confirmed by voice vote

}}

On September 24, 1789, George Washington nominated Rutledge for one of the five associate justice positions on the newly established Supreme Court. His appointment (along with those of fellow associate justices John Blair Jr., William Cushing, Robert H. Harrison, and James Wilson; plus that of John Jay for chief justice) was confirmed by the Senate two days later by voice vote.{{Cite web| title=Supreme Court Nominations: present-1789| url=https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/nominations/Nominations.htm| publisher=United States Senate| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=August 31, 2018| archive-date=December 9, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209085119/https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/nominations/Nominations.htm| url-status=live}} While he had accepted the associate judgeship, Rutledge had been hoping to be named the court's chief justice instead.{{cn|date=August 2022}} Rutledge's service on the Court officially began February 15, 1790, when he took the judicial oath, and continued until March 5, 1791. However, Rutledge would ultimately resign from this Supreme Court judgeship in 1791 before ever hearing a case in order to become chief justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and Sessions.

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{{Infobox SCOTUS nomination

| nomination = John Rutledge 1795 Supreme Court nomination

| image =

| image_alt =

| nominee = John Rutledge

| nominated_by = George Washington (president of the United States)

| status =

| outcome = Rejected by the U.S. Senate

| date_nominated = December 10, 1795

| date_rejected = December 15, 1795

| start =

| end =

| succeeding = John Jay (chief justice)

| header_votes =

| vote1 = Senate confirmation vote

| votes_favor1 = 10

| votes_against1 = 14

| present1 =

| not_voting1 = 6

| result1 = Rejected

| notes = Note: Rutledge was already serving as chief justice by recess appointment

}}

{{George Washington series}}

In 1795, Rutlege was unsuccessfully nominated to the court to serve as chief justice, after having been first given a recess appointment by President Washington to the position in August 1795. On December 10, 1795, Washington nominated Rutlege to serve as chief justice permanently. The nomination ran into opposition due to speculation about his mental health and alcohol use. The nomination was rejected by the Senate in a 14–10 vote, the first instance in which the Senate rejected a Supreme Court nomination, and the only instance in the court's history in which a recess appointee was not permanently confirmed after the recess.

On June 28, 1795, Chief Justice John Jay resigned after having been elected governor of New York. Rutlege wrote Washington that month offering to replace Jay as chief justice. President Washington selected Rutledge to succeed Jay as chief justice, and, as the Senate would not be meeting again until December, gave Rutledge a recess appointment so that he could serve as chief justice during the upcoming August session. He was commissioned as the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on June 30, 1795,{{cite web |last1=Fisher |first1=Louis |url=https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL31112.pdf |title=Recess Appointments of Federal Judges |publisher=Congressional Research Service |date=September 5, 2005 |pages=14–15 |access-date=October 20, 2012 |archive-date=April 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417150206/https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL31112.pdf |url-status=live }} and took the judicial oath on August 12.{{Cite web| title=Justices 1789 to Present| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=December 7, 2018| archive-date=April 15, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415034624/https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=CQ Supreme Court Collection |url=https://library.cqpress.com/scc/document.php?id=bioenc-427-18169-979495&v=517d2acd83f32297 |website=library.cqpress.com |publisher=Congressional Quarterly |access-date=April 16, 2022}}

President Washington formally nominated Rutlege on December 10, 1795, to a lifetime appointment as chief justice. However, by this time, Rutledge's reputation was in tatters, and support for his nomination had faded. Rumors of mental illness and alcohol abuse swirled around him, concocted largely by the Federalist press. His words and actions in response to the Jay Treaty (including an immensely controversial speech he delivered against the treaty on July 16, 1795) were used as evidence of his continued mental decline.{{cite web| title=Chief Justice Nomination Rejected| url=https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/nominations/a-chief-justice-rejected.htm| publisher=United States Senate| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=March 8, 2022}}Independent Chronicle (Boston). August 13, 1795, reprinted in Marcus, Maeva, and Perry, James Russell. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2PEjLba7EYAC&pg=PA780 The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428094450/https://books.google.com/books?id=2PEjLba7EYAC&pg=PA780 |date=April 28, 2016 }} p. 780 A lot of the opposition to Rutledge spurred from his opposition to the Jay Treaty, meaning that his political views influenced opposition to his appointment.{{cite web |title=Supreme Court Nominations Not Confirmed, 1789 to the Present |url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20100820_RL31171_d0abc25c43ba03fb13ad06cf303a68d03cdb9ece.pdf |website=www.everycrsreport.com |publisher=Congressional Research Service |access-date=16 April 2023 |date=August 20, 2010}}{{cite web |last1=Koziatek |first1=Mike |title=How often are U.S. Supreme Court nominees rejected by the Senate? Here's a list |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-often-are-us-supreme-court-nominees-rejected-by-the-senate-heres-a-list/ar-AAVHYUJ |website=MSN |publisher=Belleville News-Democrat |access-date=April 16, 2022 |date=March 31, 2022}}

The Senate rejected the nomination on December 15, 1795, by a vote of 14–10. This was the first time that the Senate had voted down a Supreme Court nomination. As of {{year}}; it remains the only U.S. Supreme Court recess appointment to be subsequently rejected by the Senate.{{Cite web| last=Wermiel| first=Stephen| date=February 15, 2013| title=SCOTUS for law students (sponsored by Bloomberg Law): Recess appointments and the Court| url=http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/02/scotus-for-law-students-sponsored-by-bloomberg-law-recess-appointments-and-the-court/| publisher=SCOTUSblog, Supreme Court of the United States| access-date=January 16, 2018| archive-date=January 17, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117070326/http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/02/scotus-for-law-students-sponsored-by-bloomberg-law-recess-appointments-and-the-court/| url-status=live}} All nine Democratic Republican Senators that cast a vote voted to confirm Rutledge, while all but one of the fifteen Federalist Senators that cast a vote voted against his confirmation.{{cite web| last1=Lewis| first1=Jeffrey B.| first2=Keith| last2=Poole| author-link2=Keith T. Poole| first3=Howard| last3=Rosenthal| author-link3=Howard Rosenthal (political scientist)| first4=Adam| last4=Boche| first5=Aaron| last5=Rudkin| first6=Luke| last6=Sonnet| date=2022| url=https://voteview.com/rollcall/RS0040018| title=4th Congress Senate Vote 18 (1795)| work=Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database| access-date=April 26, 2022}} This came despite the fact that the Federalist Party was the party more aligned with Washington's administration.{{cite magazine |title=Supreme Court Nomination Battles |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1895379_1895421_1895448,00.html |magazine=Time |access-date=April 16, 2022 |date=May 4, 2009}}

File:John Rutledge 1795 Supreme Court nomination vote tally sheet.png

{{center|1=Sources:{{cite web |title=Senate tally sheet on nomination of John Rutledge as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, December 15, 1795 |url=https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/senate-tally-sheet-nomination-john-rutledge-chief-justice-us-supreme-court |publisher=Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration |location=Washington, D.C. |via=U.S. Capitol Visitor Center |access-date=March 5, 2022 |archive-date=February 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228221330/https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/senate-tally-sheet-nomination-john-rutledge-chief-justice-us-supreme-court |url-status=dead }}}}

|}

Soon after the Senate's rejection of his nomination to the Supreme Court, on December 26, 1795, Rutledge attempted suicide by jumping off a wharf into Charleston Harbor.{{cite web |last1=Paxton |first1=Sarah |title=Top Ten Origins: Controversial SCOTUS Nominees |url=https://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/kavanaugh-blasey-ford-thomas-garland-marshall-controversial-scotus-nominees?language_content_entity=en |website=Origins.osu.edu |publisher=The Ohio State University |access-date=April 16, 2022 |language=en |date=October 9, 2018}}{{Cite book|last=Haw|first=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOdwlJ5r_tYC&pg=PA257|title=John & Edward Rutledge of South Carolina|date=1997|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1859-2|language=en}} He was rescued by two slaves who saw him drowning.{{cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/john_rutledge|title=John Rutledge|website=Oyez|access-date=March 21, 2018|archive-date=October 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171021060830/https://www.oyez.org/justices/john_rutledge/|url-status=live}} Though the Senate remained in session through June 1, 1796, which would have been the automatic end of Rutledge's commission following the rejection, Rutledge resigned from the Court two days later, on December 28, 1795, having served the briefest tenure of any chief justice of the United States ({{ayd|1795|8|12|1795|12|28}}).{{cite book| last=Flanders| first=Henry| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEQEAAAAYAAJ| title=The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court| location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co.| date=1874| page=642}} Afterward, he largely withdrew from public life and returned to live in Charleston, South Carolina.{{cite news | title=Sheriff's spokesman: Supreme Court Historical Society: John Rutledge | date=December 5, 2009 | url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history/supremecourthistory_history_chief_002rutledge.htm | access-date=December 5, 2009 |url-status = dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091202044045/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history/supremecourthistory_history_chief_002rutledge.htm | archive-date=December 2, 2009 | df=mdy-all }}

Regarding the Senate's rejection of Rutledge's nomination, Vice President John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that it "gave me pain for an old friend, though I could not but think he deserved it. Chief Justices must not go to illegal Meetings and become popular orators in favor of Sedition, nor inflame the popular discontents which are ill founded, nor propagate Disunion, Division, Contention and delusion among the people."{{Cite book|last=Maltese|first=John Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2XYWElLzZMC&pg=PA31|title=The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees|date=1998-04-24|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-5883-3|language=en|pages=30–31}}

• List of federal judges appointed by George Washington
• List of nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States
• Unsuccessful nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States

{{reflist}}

{{Nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States}}

{{George Washington}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutledge, John, Supreme Court Nomination}}

Category:1789 in American politics

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Category:1789 establishments in the United States

Category:1789 in American law

Category:1795 in American law

Category:1st United States Congress

Category:4th United States Congress

Category:Nominations to the United States Supreme Court

Category:Presidency of George Washington