Read, John Meredith

Read, John Meredith (b. Philadelphia, 21 July 1797; d. 29 Nov. 1874), unconfirmed nominee to the Supreme Court. Read graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1812 and was admitted to the bar on 7 Sept. 1818. From 1837 to 1841 he served as U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. On 7 Feb. 1845 President John Tyler appointed Read to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy on the Third Circuit. Read's nomination followed the withdrawal of the nomination of Edward King. Both nominations suffered from Tyler's lack of support from either Whigs or Democrats. Read's nomination died without action at the end of the Twenty‐eighth Congress.

In 1846 Read was appointed attorney general of Pennsylvania but soon returned to private practice. In the mid‐1850s Read became an active member of the new Republican party; as a result of that party's victory in Pennsylvania in 1858, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where he served for fifteen years, becoming chief justice in 1872. During the Civil War he was one of the bare majority on that court who sustained federal legislation, and his opinions supporting the constitutionality of the national draft and legal tender acts received wide national circulation.

See also Nominees, Rejection of.

Elizabeth B. Monroe