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Supreme Court · Chief Justice

Charles Hughes

Republican appointee: Appointed by Herbert Hoover (R)

Served 1930–1941 · 4 terms in the data

Confirmed 52–26

Biography

Charles Evans Hughes was an American politician, academic, and jurist who served as the 11th chief justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the 36th governor of New York (1907–1910), an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1910–1916), and 44th U.S. secretary of state (1921–1925).

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Hughes and the 12 justices who overlapped with Hughes, 1937–1940

−4−20+2+419371940More conservativeMore liberalMcReynoldsO. RobertsHughesStoneFrankfurterReedMurphyDouglasBlack
  • Charles Hughes
  • 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 Hughes sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−0.360.94

Hughes’s range across terms

Served alongside Hughes

12 justices

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

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Harlan Stone1937–1940career average 0.01 versus Hughes at 0.19Stanley Reed1937–1940career average 0.37 versus Hughes at 0.19Felix Frankfurter1938–1940career average 0.52 versus Hughes at 0.19Louis Brandeis1937–1938career average −0.61 versus Hughes at 0.19Owen Roberts1937–1940career average 1.52 versus Hughes at 0.19George Sutherland1937career average 1.60 versus Hughes at 0.19Benjamin Cardozo1937career average −1.59 versus Hughes at 0.19Frank Murphy1939–1940career average −1.59 versus Hughes at 0.19Hugo Black1937–1940career average −1.76 versus Hughes at 0.19Pierce Butler1937–1938career average 2.23 versus Hughes at 0.19James McReynolds1937–1940career average 3.50 versus Hughes at 0.19William Douglas1938–1940career average −4.70 versus Hughes at 0.19

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.