John Rutledge Supreme Court nominations

Painting of Rutledge, circa 1788

John Rutledge was twice nominated by President George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States, being nominated and confirmed in 1789 as an associate justice, and being unsuccessfully nominated in 1795 to serve as chief justice.

1789 nomination for associate justice

John Rutledge 1789 Supreme Court nomination
Nominee	John Rutledge
Nominated by	George Washington (president of the United States)
Succeeding	Associate judgeship established
Date nominated	September 24, 1789
Date confirmed	September 24, 1789
Outcome	Confirmed by the U.S. Senate
Senate confirmation vote
Result	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.^[1] While he had accepted the associate judgeship, Rutledge had been hoping to be named the court's chief justice instead.^{[citation needed]} Rutledge's service on the Court officially began February 15, 1790, when he took the judicial oath, and continued until March 5, 1791.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

1795 nomination for chief justice

John Rutledge 1795 Supreme Court nomination
Nominee	John Rutledge
Nominated by	George Washington (president of the United States)
Succeeding	John Jay (chief justice)
Date nominated	December 10, 1795
Date rejected	December 15, 1795
Outcome	Rejected by the U.S. Senate
Senate confirmation vote
Votes in favor	10
Votes against	14
Not voting	6
Result	Rejected
Note: Rutledge was already serving as chief justice by recess appointment

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.

Recess appointment

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,^[5] and took the judicial oath on August 12.^[2][6]

Nomination

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.^[3][7] 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.^[8][9]

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 2024; it remains the only U.S. Supreme Court recess appointment to be subsequently rejected by the Senate.^[3][10] 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.^[11] This came despite the fact that the Federalist Party was the party more aligned with Washington's administration.^[4]

December 15, 1795 Senate confirmation vote tally sheet

Rutledge confirmation vote
December 15, 1795	Party		Total votes
	Federalist	Democratic-Republican
Yea	1	9	10
Nay	14	0	14
Result: Rejected
Roll call vote on the nomination Senator Party State Vote William Bingham F Pennsylvania Nay Timothy Bloodworth DR North Carolina Yea John Brown DR Kentucky Yea Pierce Butler DR South Carolina Yea William Bradford F Rhode Island Not voting Aaron Burr DR New York Yea George Cabot F Massachusetts Nay Oliver Ellsworth F Connecticut Nay Theodore Foster F Rhode Island Nay Frederick Frelinghuysen F New Jersey Nay James Gunn F Georgia Not voting John Henry F Maryland Not voting James Jackson DR Georgia Not voting Rufus King F New York Nay John Langdon DR New Hampshire Yea Henry Latimer F Delaware Nay Samuel Livermore F New Hampshire Nay Humphrey Marshall F Kentucky Nay Alexander Martin DR North Carolina Yea Stevens Mason DR Virginia Yea Elijah Paine F Vermont Nay Richard Potts F Maryland Not voting Jacob Read F South Carolina Yea Moses Robinson DR Vermont Yea James Ross F Pennsylvania Nay John Rutherfurd F New Jersey Nay Caleb Strong F Massachusetts Nay Henry Tazewell DR Virginia Yea Jonathan Trumbull Jr. F Connecticut Nay John Vining F Delaware Not voting Sources:[11][12]

Aftermath

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.^[13][5][14] He was rescued by two slaves who saw him drowning.^[15] 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 (138 days).^[16] Afterward, he largely withdrew from public life and returned to live in Charleston, South Carolina.^[17]

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."^[18]

See also

• 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

References

1. "Supreme Court Nominations: present-1789". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
2. "Justices 1789 to Present". Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. Archived from the original on April 15, 2010. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
3. "Chief Justice Nomination Rejected". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
4. "Supreme Court Nomination Battles". Time. May 4, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
5. Fisher, Louis (September 5, 2005). "Recess Appointments of Federal Judges" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. pp. 14–15. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
6. "CQ Supreme Court Collection". library.cqpress.com. Congressional Quarterly. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
7. Independent Chronicle (Boston). August 13, 1795, reprinted in Marcus, Maeva, and Perry, James Russell. The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800 Archived April 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine p. 780
8. "Supreme Court Nominations Not Confirmed, 1789 to the Present" (PDF). www.everycrsreport.com. Congressional Research Service. August 20, 2010. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
9. Koziatek, Mike (March 31, 2022). "How often are U.S. Supreme Court nominees rejected by the Senate? Here's a list". MSN. Belleville News-Democrat. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
10. Wermiel, Stephen (February 15, 2013). "SCOTUS for law students (sponsored by Bloomberg Law): Recess appointments and the Court". SCOTUSblog, Supreme Court of the United States. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
11. Lewis, Jeffrey B.; Poole, Keith; Rosenthal, Howard; Boche, Adam; Rudkin, Aaron; Sonnet, Luke (2022). "4th Congress Senate Vote 18 (1795)". Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
12. "Senate tally sheet on nomination of John Rutledge as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, December 15, 1795". Washington, D.C.: Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved March 5, 2022 – via U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
13. Paxton, Sarah (October 9, 2018). "Top Ten Origins: Controversial SCOTUS Nominees". Origins.osu.edu. The Ohio State University. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
14. Haw, James (1997). John & Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-1859-2.
15. "John Rutledge". Oyez. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
16. Flanders, Henry (1874). The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott & Co. p. 642.
17. "Sheriff's spokesman: Supreme Court Historical Society: John Rutledge". December 5, 2009. Archived from the original on December 2, 2009. Retrieved December 5, 2009.
18. Maltese, John Anthony (April 24, 1998). The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees. JHU Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-0-8018-5883-3.