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Harlan Fiske Stone (October 11, 1872 – April 22, 1946) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the dean of Columbia Law School, Attorney General of the United States, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and later Chief Justice of the United States.
Early years
Stone was born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, to Fred L. and Ann S. (Butler) Stone. He prepared at Amherst High School, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College in 1894.
From 1894 to 1895 he was the submaster of Newburgh High School. From 1895 to 1896 he was an instructor in history at Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn, New York.
Legal career
Stone attended Columbia Law School from 1895 to 1898 and was admitted to the New York bar in 1898. He became a lawyer in New York City from 1898 onward, initially a member of the firm Satterlee, Sullivan & Stone, and later a member of the firm Sullivan & Cromwell. From 1899-1902 he lectured on law at Columbia Law School; he was a professor there from 1902-1905; and eventually became the school's Dean from 1910-1923.
In 1924, he was appointed United States Attorney General by his Amherst classmate and then-President Calvin Coolidge. As Attorney General, Stone was responsible for the appointment of J. Edgar Hoover as head of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation, which was to become the FBI.
In 1925, Stone was appointed an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, becoming Coolidge's only appointment to the Court.
In 1940 he wrote the court's opinion in Hansberry v. Lee involving the father of Lorraine Hansberry the author of A Raisin in the Sun.
In 1941, Stone was elevated to Chief Justice by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He would serve in that position for the rest of his life.
In 1946, at the age of 73, Stone died of a cerebral hemorrhage that struck while he was on the bench reading his dissent in the case of Girouard v. United States, 328 U.S. 61. (He opposed overturning precedents that would have barred a Seventh-day Adventist from being naturalized as a U.S. citizen if he refused to take up military arms during wartime despite being willing to serve as a conscientious objector.) He is the only Supreme Court Justice to have died during an open court session.
Other activities
Stone was the director of the Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line Railroad Company, the President of the Association of American Law Schools, and a member of the American Bar Association.
He was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Amherst College in 1900, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Amherst in 1913. Yale awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1924, with Columbia and Williams each awarding the same honorary degree in 1925.
Stone married Agnes E. Harvey in 1899. Their children were Lauson H. Stone and the mathematician Marshall H. Stone.
Trivia
To date, Justice Stone is the only justice to have physically filled all nine seats on the bench, having incrementally moved "seniority" positions from most junior Associate Justice to most senior Associate Justice and finally to Chief Justice.
American lawyers | Chief Justices of the United States | United States Attorneys General
"Harlan Fiske Stone"