Justice Robert Cooper Grier
Today’s Justice of the Day is: ROBERT COOPER GRIER. Justice Grier was born on this day, March 5, in 1794.
Justice Grier was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, the state from which he would be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. His family history was uniquely tied up with ministerial work, and he seemed destined to become a minister himself, though he eventually chose the law as his life’s work. He graduated from Dickinson College with a B.A. in 1812.
Justice Grier worked in private practice in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania for one year, starting in 1817, before continuing his work as a private attorney in Danville, Pennsylvania (from 1818 to 1833). His work as a loyal Jacksonian Democrat then paid off, as he immediately began serving as President Judge of the District Court of Allegheny County (in Pennsylvania), where he would remain until his appointment to the SCUS.
Justice Grier was nominated President James Knox Polk on August 3, 1846, to a seat vacated by Justice Henry Baldwin. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 4, and received his commission that day. Justice Grier took the Judicial Oath to officially join the SCUS on August 10, and served on the Taney and Chase Courts. His service was terminated on January 31, 1870, due to his retirement.
Justice Grier is not especially well-remembered today. Perhaps his most notable act while on the bench was joining the odious opinion of the Court in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which held that no person who was a descendant of slaves originating from Africa could ever be a citizen under Article III and ruled that the Missouri Compromise (passed by Congress to forestall conflict over the slavery issue) was unconstitutional, as part of its larger attempt to end the slavery debate in favor of Southern slave-owners.