Goudy, William Charles (1824–1893)

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GOUDY, WILLIAM CHARLES (1824–1893)

The leader of the Chicago bar, William Goudy was a creative constitutional lawyer and railroad counsel who argued many cases before the Supreme Court. He familiarized the Court with the relationship of laissez-faire tenets and constitutional limitations on state police power. In Munn v. Illinois (see granger cases), wabash, st. louis, and pacific railroad v. illinois (1886), and chicago, milwaukee, and st. paul railroad v. minnesota (1890), he advanced substantive due process of law in the context of arguments, stressing that the right to property included its unfettered use as well as its title and possession. State regulation of rates, by reducing profits, constituted a taking of property without just compensation and a denial of due process, according to Goudy.

Leonard W. Levy
(1986)

Bibliography

Twiss, Benjamin 1942 Lawyers and the Constitution. Pages 76–84. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

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Goudy, William Charles (1824–1893)

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