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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Pierce Butler

Republican appointee: Appointed by Warren G. Harding (R)

Served 1922–1939 · 2 terms in the data

Confirmed 61–8

Biography

Pierce Butler was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1923 until his death in 1939. He is notable for being the first Supreme Court justice from Minnesota, and for being a Democrat appointed by a Republican president. He was a staunch conservative and was regarded as a part of the Four Horsemen, the conservative bloc that dominated the Supreme Court during the 1930s.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Butler and the 11 justices who overlapped with Butler, 1937–1938

−4−20+2+419371938More conservativeMore liberalMcReynoldsButlerO. RobertsHughesBrandeisStoneReedFrankfurterDouglasBlack
  • Pierce Butler
  • 95% credible interval
  • Peer, appointed by a Democrat
  • Peer, appointed by a Republican
  • Court median
How to read this

Martin–Quinn scores place each justice on a single liberal–conservative dimension, estimated from their votes across terms, with scores allowed to shift from one term to the next. Higher is more conservative. The shaded band is the credible interval: wider when the record is thin, especially in a justice’s first terms, and narrower as votes accumulate.

Where Butler sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+42.072.38

Butler’s range across terms

Served alongside Butler

11 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: Butler.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
George Sutherland1937career average 1.60 versus Butler at 2.23Owen Roberts1937–1938career average 1.52 versus Butler at 2.23James McReynolds1937–1938career average 3.50 versus Butler at 2.23Felix Frankfurter1938career average 0.52 versus Butler at 2.23Stanley Reed1937–1938career average 0.37 versus Butler at 2.23Charles Hughes1937–1938career average 0.19 versus Butler at 2.23Harlan Stone1937–1938career average 0.01 versus Butler at 2.23Louis Brandeis1937–1938career average −0.61 versus Butler at 2.23Benjamin Cardozo1937career average −1.59 versus Butler at 2.23Hugo Black1937–1938career average −1.76 versus Butler at 2.23William Douglas1938career average −4.70 versus Butler at 2.23

Scores: Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10:134–153, from mqscores.wustl.edu. Appointment data: Federal Judicial Center biographical directory. Biographies: Wikipedia, text abridged, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Portraits: public-domain images via Wikimedia Commons.