George Sutherland

Infobox Judge
name = George Sutherland


imagesize = 150px
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office = Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
termstart = October 2, 1922
termend = January 17, 1938
nominator = Warren G. Harding
appointer =
predecessor = John Hessin Clarke
successor = Stanley Forman Reed
office2 =
termstart2 =
termend2 =
nominator2 =
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predecessor2 =
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birthdate = birth date|1862|3|25|mf=y
birthplace = Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
deathdate = death date and age|1942|7|18|1862|3|25
deathplace =
spouse =

George Sutherland (March 25, 1862 – July 18, 1942) was an English-born U.S. jurist and political figure. One of four appointments to the Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding, he served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court between 1922 and 1938.

Early life and career

Born in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, Sutherland immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1863 to join the community of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Springville, Utah. He graduated from Brigham Young Academy in 1881. Sutherland then graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, and was admitted to the Utah bar in 1883. He was known for his representation of railroads.

Congress

He served as a Congressman from Utah during the 57th Congress (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1903) and was a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1905 to 1917. He was a Republican.

American Bar Association

Sutherland was also President of the American Bar Association from 1916 – 1917.

upreme Court

While Franklin Delano Roosevelt was still Governor of New York, Sutherland wrote a decision upholding the constitutionality of local zoning ordinances, in "Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co.".

During Franklin Roosevelt's early years in office as president, Justice Sutherland along with James Clark McReynolds, Pierce Butler and Willis Van Devanter, was part of the conservative Four Horsemen, who were instrumental in striking down Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. Important decisions authored by Sutherland include the 1932 case "Powell v. Alabama", overturning a conviction in the Scottsboro Boys Case because the defendant, Ozie Powell, was deprived of his right to counsel, and "U.S. v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp.".

In "United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind", Sutherland authored a decision using his vague definition of the Caucasian race with the unmerited application of the "common man" test that classified Indians as belonging to the Asian race, despite anthropological assumptions on the contrary. This ruling led to Thind's being denied the possibility of naturalized citizenship.

Sutherland resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court on January 17, 1938, and died four years and one day later.

References

* [http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/from_war_to_war/georgesutherland.html Utah History To Go: Biography of George Sutherland]

Persondata
NAME= Sutherland, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= U.S. jurist and political figure
DATE OF BIRTH= March 25, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH= Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH= July 18, 1942
PLACE OF DEATH=