U.S. Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler, shown in an undated portrait, was a Catholic from Minnesota.
Harris & Ewing, photographer. United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division. Public domain.
On May 2, 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its verdict in the case Buck v. Bell. The court ruled in favor of John Hendren Bell, superintendent of the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded*, upholding a Virginia statute that favored involuntary sterilization of individuals who were deemed mentally unfit. Only one justice dissented. He was Pierce Butler, a Catholic and native of Minnesota.
Butler did not write out a formal dissenting opinion, so it is likely no one will ever know why exactly he voted the way he did. But it is likely his Catholic faith played a role. During the early 1900s, eugenics was a popular branch of biology that sought to improve the human race through better breeding, and sterilizing people with less desirable traits was one way that eugenics was put into practice. Catholics were some of the most consistent opponents to eugenic ideas. In 1930, Pope Pius XI argued in the encyclical “Casti connubii” that when no crime had taken place, the government should not be able to tamper with the integrity of the body for any reason. Meanwhile, following the Buck v. Bell ruling, laws calling for forced sterilization spread across the country.
Beyond this particular case, Pierce Butler was a rather unremarkable Supreme Court justice, who had been selected on the basis of a superior legal career. He was born to two Irish immigrants on St. Patrick’s Day in 1866. Pierce followed in his father’s footsteps and became a local schoolteacher as a teenager before enrolling in the nearby college, Carleton, like his older siblings. Although the school was nondenominational, Butler’s final speech at the school was on “the greatness of the Roman Catholic Church and its good influence upon the world.” Following graduation, he interned with a law firm in St. Paul and was admitted to the state bar in 1888.
Although Butler was elected Ramsey County attorney at 26, he preferred private practice. He built a national and international reputation as he represented James J. Hill’s railroads, other corporations, and the U.S. government in courtrooms in the United States and Canada. So, when it became clear that Justice William Rufus Day would leave the Supreme Court in 1922 due to his failing health, Butler was a candidate worth considering to fill the seat.
Butler was a well-respected lawyer, but it was ultimately his demographic characteristics that pushed his name to the top of the candidate list. He was well known for his fierce courtroom cross-examinations and his carefully prepared legal arguments. He was also a loyal Democrat and a Catholic. Republican president Warren G. Harding was interested in putting a moderate Democrat on the court to widen his popularity, and he wanted to prevent any complaints about the lack of a Catholic on the court after the impending retirement of the only remaining Catholic justice. Of course, groups as varied as the Women’s Auxiliary of the Ohio State Good Government Association and the Ku Klux Klan were alarmed that a Catholic should be appointed. Additional concerns came from progressives who worried about his connections to big business. But with vocal support from U.S. bishops and others, the senate ultimately confirmed him by a wide margin Dec. 21, 1922.
Until his death in 1939, Pierce Butler remained a Supreme Court justice. Today, you will find Butler buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul and honored by the name of a road running along the railroad just south of that cemetery.
*A note: while this term is no longer used, it accurately reflects the historical name of the institution.
Luiken is a Catholic and a historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.
Recent Comments