Harlan Fiske Stone

Harlan Fiske Stone (1872-1946), chief justice of the United States. Stone was born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, and educated at Amherst College and the Columbia University School of Law. Admitted to the bar in 1899, he practiced law in New York City. In 1902 he became a professor, and in 1910 dean, at the Columbia University School of Law. He served at Columbia until 1924, when President Calvin Coolidge appointed him attorney general of the U.S. In this office Stone helped to eliminate corruption in the Department of Justice after the so-called Teapot Dome scandal during the administration of President Warren Harding. In 1925 Coolidge appointed Stone associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and he was later appointed chief justice (1941) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which capacity he served until his death. Stone was noted for his dissenting opinions on constitutional law, many of which were later enacted into law and upheld by the Court. In general he supported the legislation of the New Deal, some of which was invalidated by the Court.