The Taft Court

In 1891, Congress established a set of intermediate-level federal appellate courts, finally relieving the Supreme Court justices of their tiresome duty of "riding circuit." These helped to lighten the Court's workload considerably. However, the amount of litigation before the nation's highest court continued to rise, driven in large part by challenges to state economic regulations passed in response to the reform efforts of the Progressive movement.

In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed William Howard Taft to the Chief Justice's seat on the Supreme Court. Taft, a Republican, was himself a former president, occupying the Oval Office from 1909 to 1913. The only person ever to hold both positions, Taft regarded being a Supreme Court justice as a greater achievement than being president. Most historians agree that Taft was more effective in the role of Chief Justice than he had been as chief executive.

In the 1920s, the Court was still obligated to take on any case before it that concerned federal law. In an effort to reduce the Court's caseload, Taft lobbied Congress to pass the Judiciary Act of 1925. This legislation enabled the Court for the first time to control its own docket, giving the justices the power to accept or reject appeals based on merit. Taft also organized the Conference of Senior Circuit Court Judges, a reform that helped to reduce the backlog of cases at the federal circuit level.

As president, Taft had also lobbied Congress to fund the construction of a separate building for the Supreme Court, which had been meeting since 1861 in the Old Senate Chamber in the Capitol. When he became Chief Justice, Taft continued to press Congress for a new home for the Supreme Court, an effort that ultimately paid off when architect Cass Gilbert's design for a "building of dignity and importance" was approved by a commission chaired by Taft. Unfortunately, Taft died in March 1930, five years before the Court held its first session in its new home.