Iredell, James

Iredell, James (b. Lewes, England, 5 Oct. 1751; d. Edenton, N.C., 20 Oct. 1799; interred Gov. Samuel Johnston's private burial ground, Hayes, N.C.); associate justice, 1790–1799. The son of Francis and Margaret McCulloch Iredell, James Iredell was reared in England. Upon his father's illness and ensuing poverty, Iredell sailed to North Carolina in 1768 to become comptroller of His Majesty's Customs at Edenton, a position purchased for him by his mother's wealthy relatives. His official responsibilities allowed him time to study law, which he did under the tutelage of Samuel Johnston, whose sister, Hannah, he married on 18 July 1773. They had three children. He commenced law practice in December 1770, a vocation that he pursued until his appointment to the United States Supreme Court. He also served in various public offices during that period, including collector of the Port of Edenton (1774–1776), judge of the North Carolina Superior Court (1777–1778), and attorney general of North Carolina (1779–1781). He eagerly supported the revolutionary movement.

Impressed by Iredell's eloquent and energetic efforts in behalf of the ratification of the Constitution and desirous to appoint a North Carolinian to a prominent position in the federal government, President George Washington nominated Iredell to the Supreme Court on 8 February 1790 and the Senate unanimously confirmed him two days later. Despite the fierce nationalism that he had displayed during the debate over the new Constitution, some of Iredell's most notable moments on the Court were as a dissenter in the defense of states' rights (see State Sovereignty and States' Rights). When he sided with the majority, which was often, he sometimes did so for reasons independent of his colleagues. Iredell dissented in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), which held that a state could be sued without its consent in a federal court under Article III, section 2 of the Constitution. His dissent argued that English common law was binding on the question and that this law did not give a citizen the right to sue a sovereign state without its consent. The final sentence of his dissent hinted broadly at the firestorm of protest that would greet the majority's ruling and cause it eventually to be rescinded.

Because he had been a member of the circuit court that had tried the case, Iredell did not participate in Ware v. Hylton (1796), which held that the treaty with Great Britain of 1783 invalidated Virginia's confiscation of a debt owed to a British creditor. He did, however, read his circuit court opinion, which argued that the treaty with Great Britain did not apply retroactively to a debt that had been confiscated in 1777. His opinion in Calder v. Bull (1798), which supported the Court's ruling that the Ex Post Facto Clause applied only to criminal cases, represented one of the earliest and most eloquent statements in support of judicial self‐restraint. His opinion in Hylton v. United States (1796), which endorsed the Court's upholding of a federal carriage tax, included a very succinct and practical definition of the term “direct tax.”

The physically taxing duties of riding his federal judicial circuit contributed to his death in 1799 (see Circuit Riding). Had he lived a longer life and continued to serve on the Court during the period of John Marshall, his brilliant legal mind, states rights federalism, and penchant for dissent might have undermined the chief justice's campaign for judicial unanimity and constitutional nationalism.

Robert M. Ireland