William Johnson (judge)

Infobox Judge
name = William Johnson


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office = Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
termstart = May 7 1804
termend = August 4 1834
nominator = Thomas Jefferson
predecessor = Alfred Moore
successor = James Moore Wayne
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nominator2 =
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birthdate = December 17 or 27, 1771
birthplace = Charleston, South Carolina
deathdate = death date|1834|8|11|mf=y
deathplace = New York, New York
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William Johnson (December 17 or December 27, 1771 - August 11, 1834) was a state legislator and judge in South Carolina, and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1804 to his death in 1834.

Youth and early career

Johnson was born in Charleston. His father, William Johnson, was a revolutionary, and represented Charleston in the general assembly of South Carolina. The elder Johnson was deported by Sir Henry Clinton to St. Augustine with other distinguished patriots of South Carolina. [Johnson, Bradley T. "The Memoir of Jane Claudia Johnson." Southern Historical Society Papers, volume XXIX, 1901, pg 34.] His mother, Sarah Johnson, nee Nightingale, was also a revolutionary. "During the siege of Charleston, [she quilted] her petticoats with cartridges, which she thus conveyed to her husband in the trenches." [Johnson, Bradley T. "The Memoir of Jane Claudia Johnson." Southern Historical Society Papers, volume XXIX, 1901, pg 34.] The younger Johnson studied law at Princeton and graduated in 1790. He studied in the law office of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney before passing the bar in 1793. In 1794, he married Sarah Bennett. They had at least one child, Anna Hayes Johnson, who was the second wife of Romulus Mitchell Saunders and mother of Jane Claudia Saunders Johnson (wife of General Bradley Tyler Johnson, Confederate Civil War General from Maryland.) [Hanson, George Adolphus. Old Kent: the Eastern Shore of Maryland , Notes Illustrative of the Most Ancient Records of Kent County, 1876, pg 57 ]

Work as a legislator

Johnson followed in his father's footsteps, representing the city of Charleston (and the nascent Republican party) in the state's house of representatives from 1794-1798. In 1796, he was selected as the speaker of the state house. In 1798, the formation of the state's highest court created a demand for judges, and Johnson was one of those selected to the position.

Appointment to the Court

Johnson was appointed an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court by Thomas Jefferson in 1804, as the successor of Alfred Moore. He was the first of Jefferson's three appointments to the court, and is considered to have been selected for sharing many of Jefferson's beliefs about the Constitution.

Independent judicial mind

In his years on the Court, Johnson proved to be a very independent mind - while the Chief Justice, John Marshall, was able to steer the opinions of most of the justices in most cases, Johnson developed a reputation for dissent. Johnson's independence was further displayed in 1808 when he defied the orders of the collector of the port of Charleston, the United States Attorney General Caesar A. Rodney, and President Thomas Jefferson (the very man who had nominated Johnson to his position), because he felt that the executive branch's control of maritime trade was an overextension of its constitutional powers. Much later in his service on the court, during the Nullification Crisis in South Carolina from 1831-1833, Johnson again displayed his desire for independent thought by moving away from his residence in South Carolina, so as not to be swayed by the intensity of public opinion there.

Johnson died in 1834 in New York after surgery on his jaw.

References

External links

* [http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/14/biography A very brief online biography]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5781 William Johnson on Find-A-Grave]

Persondata
NAME= Johnson, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
DATE OF BIRTH= December 17 or 27, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH= Charleston, South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH= August 11, 1834
PLACE OF DEATH= New York, New York