Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes Sr. was an American statesman, politician, Cornell Law School Professor, and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the 36th Governor of New York (1907–1910), an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1910–1916), and 44th U.S. Secretary of State (1921–1925), as well as the Republican nominee for President of the United States who lost a very close 1916 presidential election to Woodrow Wilson. Had Hughes won, he would have become the only former Supreme Court justice to be elected president.

Born to a Welsh immigrant preacher and his wife in Glens Falls, New York, Hughes graduated from Brown University and Columbia Law School and practiced law in New York City. After working in private practice for several years, in 1905 he led successful state investigations into public utilities and the life insurance industry. He won election as the Governor of New York in 1906, and implemented several progressive reforms. In 1910, President William Howard Taft appointed Hughes as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Hughes often joined Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in voting to uphold state and federal regulations.

Hughes served as an Associate Justice until 1916, when he resigned from the bench to accept the Republican presidential nomination. Though Hughes was widely viewed as the favorite in the race against incumbent Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, Wilson won a narrow victory. After Warren G. Harding won the 1920 presidential election, Hughes accepted Harding's invitation to serve as Secretary of State. Serving under Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he negotiated the Washington Naval Treaty, which was designed to prevent a naval arms race among the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. Hughes left office in 1925 and returned to private practice, becoming one of the most prominent attorneys in the country.

In 1930, President Herbert Hoover appointed him to succeed Chief Justice Taft. Along with Associate Justice Owen Roberts, Hughes emerged as a key swing vote on the bench, positioned between the liberal Three Musketeers and the conservative Four Horsemen. The Hughes Court struck down several New Deal programs in the early and the mid-1930s, but 1937 marked a turning point for the Supreme Court and the New Deal as Hughes and Roberts joined with the Three Musketeers to uphold the Wagner Act and a state minimum wage law. That same year saw the defeat of the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, which would have expanded the size of the Supreme Court. Hughes served until 1941, when he retired and was succeeded by Associate Justice Harlan F. Stone.

Secretary of State :

Shortly after Harding's victory in the 1920 election, Hughes accepted the position of Secretary of State. After the death of Chief Justice White in May 1921, Hughes was mentioned as a potential successor. Hughes told Harding he was uninterested in leaving the State Department, and Harding instead appointed former President Taft as the Chief Justice.

Harding granted Hughes a great deal of discretion in his leadership of the State Department and US foreign policy. Harding and Hughes frequently communicated, Hughes worked within some broad outlines, and the president remained well-informed. However, the President rarely overrode any of Hughes's decisions, with the big and obvious exception of the League of Nations. 

After taking office, President Harding hardened his stance on the League of Nations to deciding the US would not join even a scaled-down version. Another view is that Harding favored joining with reservations when he assumed office on March 4, 1921, but Senators staunchly opposed (the "Irreconcilables"), per Ronald E. Powaski's 1991 book, "threatened to wreck the new administration."

Hughes favored membership in the League. Early in his tenure as Secretary of State, he asked the Senate to vote on the Treaty of Versailles, but he yielded to either Harding's changing views and/or the political reality within the Senate. Instead, he convinced Harding of the necessity of a separate treaty with Germany, resulting in the signing and eventual ratification of the U.S.–German Peace Treaty. Hughes also favored US entrance into the Permanent Court of International Justice but was unable to convince the Senate to provide support.