Van Devanter, Willis (b. Marion, Ind., 17 Apr. 1859; d. Washington, D.C., 8 Feb. 1941; interred Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.), associate justice, 1910–1937. Willis Van Devanter, one of the Four Horsemen, graduated from the University of Cincinnati Law School in 1881. After three years in his father's Marion, Indiana, law firm, he moved to Wyoming, where he quickly became involved in public life: first as city attorney of Cheyenne and as a territorial legislator and then as chief justice of the territorial court. When Wyoming became a state, he returned to private practice, counting the Union Pacific Railroad among his clients. Van Devanter's involvement in Republican party politics led to his appointment as assistant attorney general in the Department of Interior in 1897. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1903, and seven years later President William Howard Taft chose him to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice William Moody.

Van Devanter was considered the foremost intellectual conservative on the court during his twenty‐six‐year tenure. His service was distinguished primarily by his performance in the conference and as a critic of his colleagues' opinions. His knowledge of jurisdictional matters also led Chief Justice Taft to choose him to play a leading role in drafting the Judiciary Act of 1925 and testifying before Congress on its behalf.

Never a prolific writer, Van Denvanter made his legal contributions in obscure areas of the Court's docket: public land claims, water rights issues, Indian controversies, corporate law, jurisdictional issues, and admiralty law. His most important majority opinion was McGrain v. Daugherty (1927), in which he broadly interpreted the implied power of Congress to conduct investigations. Congress, he said, had the power to investigate and to issue subpoenas even without an explicitly stated legislative purpose. Aside from McGrain, Van Devanter is known primarily for the opinions he wrote or joined that subscribed to the principles of limited government. His opinion for the Court in Mondou v. New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad (1912) upheld the Employees' Liability Act of 1908, because it was restricted to the Court's prevailing view that congressional power was limited to interstate commerce itself and to actions that directly affected that commerce. Van Devanter was, however, fiercely opposed to the use of the commerce power, along with the taxing power (see Taxing and Spending Clause) and the Due Process Clause to regulate industry and labor‐management relations. He joined Justice William Day in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), Chief Justice Taft in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922), and Justice George Sutherland in Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) in striking down federal child labor and state minimum wage legislation on commerce, tax, and due process grounds.

The Great Depression provided a clear test of Van Devanter's commitment to limited government principles. Hammer, Bailey, and Adkins suggested his response. Along with three conservative justicaes—James McReynolds, Sutherland, and Pierce Butler—he consistently opposed New Deal economic and social programs. These Four Horsemen, as they became known, joined by Justice Owen Roberts, overturned the Railway Pension Act in Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton Railroad (1935), voided the Agricultural Adjustment Act's processing tax in United States v. Butler (1936), and struck down the New York State minimum wage law in Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo (1936) as commerce, tax, and due process clause violations.

These decisions and *Schechter Poultry v. United States (1935), which condemned the National Industrial Recovery Act, precipitated a constitutional crisis. In response to FDR's *“court‐packing” plan, the Court retreated. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Roberts joined Justices LouisBrandeis, Harlan Fiske Stone, and Benjamin Cardozo to uphold federal and state legislation over dissents by the Four Horsemen. In his dissent in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation (1937), Van Devanter, joined by Sutherland and Butler, argued that federal regulation of labor‐management relations violated the Commerce Clause because the effect on interstate commerce was indirect and remote. In Steward Machine Co. v. Davis (1937), Van Devanter agreed with Sutherland that the Social Security Act of 1935 exceeded the congressional taxing power. Sutherland's opinion for all Four Horsemen in *West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937) also expressed Van Devanter's firm conviction that the state minimum wage statute offended the Due Process Clause. In subsequent cases, Van Devanter's fellow conservative justices continued to resist the Roosevelt revolution, but these three decisions and his retirement at the end of the 1936 term resolved the Court's confrontation with the New Deal.

Bibliography

James O'Brien Howard , Constitutional Doctrines of Mr. Justice Van Devanter (1937).

William Crawford Green

VAN DEVANTER, WILLIS

As an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1910 to 1937, Willis Van Devanter was considered the leading conservative justice of the era. Van Devanter's background in education, politics, and the law brought him to the bench, first as chief justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court and then as a U.S. circuit judge. In his twenty-six years on the U.S. Supreme Court, he consistently opposed the expansion of government power. His opposition was fiercest during the administration of President franklin d. roosevelt, when he joined three other conservative justices of the Supreme Court in fighting Roosevelt's legislative program, the new deal. Their like-minded opinions, which earned them the nickname the "Four Horsemen," led to a sharp confrontation with the president.

Born on April 17, 1859, in Marion, Indiana, Van Devanter was the first of eight children born to Violetta Spencer and Isaac Van Devanter, a lawyer and abolitionist. He excelled in academics, graduating in 1878 from Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) with a near perfect record in history, math, Greek, and Latin. In 1881 he earned a bachelor of laws degree from the Cincinnati Law School and established a law practice in Indiana. He soon moved to Wyoming where he represented railroads, helped to amend the state's statutes in 1886, and served as city attorney for two years. In 1888 he was a representative at the territorial legislature and chaired the Judiciary Committee. Van Devanter also found time for hunting grizzly bears with the legendary Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody).

For the next two decades, Van Devanter's energies were divided among the judiciary, education, and republican party politics. He presided as chief justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court from 1889 to 1890. From 1896 to 1900, he was an assistant U.S. attorney general to the interior department, concurrently serving as a delegate to the Republican National Committee. He also taught law at Columbian College, now george washington University. In 1903 President theodore roosevelt appointed him to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in 1910 President william howard taft nominated him to the Supreme Court.

"We are of the opinion that the power of inquiry—with process to enforce it—is an essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative function."
—Willis Van Devanter

On the Court, Van Devanter wrote few noteworthy opinions. His contributions came mainly in obscure legal areas that he had mastered while on the circuit court: land claims, water rights, and jurisdictional issues. Rather than writing opinions, Van Devanter preferred to assert his influence in discussions among the justices. He often voiced his belief that government

power should be limited. He took an especially narrow view of the powers that could be asserted under the U.S. Constitution's Commerce, Tax, and Due Process Clauses. From 1918 to 1923, he joined majority opinions that found federal child labor laws and state minimum wage legislation unconstitutional.

Ironically, Van Devanter's most significant opinion marked a rare departure from his ideology. In mcgrain v. daugherty, 273 U.S. 135, 47 S. Ct. 319, 71 L. Ed. 580 (1927), he asserted that Congress had broad powers to subpoena and conduct investigations. The opinion's impact was felt dramatically two decades later during congressional investigations of labor corruption and communism.

In the 1930s, Van Devanter's desire to restrain government kept him on the Court. He had apparently decided to retire in 1932 but changed his mind because of what he regarded as the excesses of President Franklin Roosevelt. The president had embarked on the ambitious New Deal, a broad legislative response to the economic hardships of the Great Depression.

Sharing Van Devanter's opposition to these programs were three other conservative justices: james c. mcreynolds, george sutherland, and pierce butler. Critics dubbed them the "Four Horsemen," after the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. In a string of decisions, they voted as a bloc to strike down key New Deal laws. Among these decisions was schechter poultry corp. v. united states, 295 U.S. 495, 55 S. Ct. 837, 79 L. Ed. 1570 (1935), which voided a key part of Roosevelt's plan for economic recovery and provoked the president into seeking a means to ensure that his legislation survived. Two years later, Roosevelt responded with an extraordinary attempt to expand the number of justices on the Court—his so-called court-packing plan. In the face of this challenge, the Court backed down and began upholding New Deal legislation.

Van Devanter resigned at the end of 1936. Although branded a reactionary during his tenure, in retirement he received accolades from his fellow justices, conservative and liberal alike. He died on February 8, 1941, in Washington, D.C.

further readings

Johnson, Wallace H. 2001. "Willis Van Devanter: An Examination." Wyoming Law Review 1 (winter).

Van Pelt, Lori. 2004. Capital Characters of Old Cheyenne. Glendo, Wyo.: High Plains Press.

cross-references

New Deal; Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, "FDR's Court Packing Plan" (Sidebar).