Keywords

Supreme Court, Justice George Sutherland, Brigham Young Academy

Abstract

Even within the eclectic group of men and women who have sat on the U.S. Supreme Court, Associate Justice George Sutherland (1922-38) was truly one of a kind: The only Justice ever to come from the state of Utah, he grew up as a non-Mormon in a cloistered 19th century Mormon society—and yet he rose to become one of the community’s most popular and even beloved political figures. As a lawyer, Sutherland defended Mormon men charged with “unlawful cohabitation” for polygamous lifestyles—and yet as a U.S. Senator he championed women’s rights, including suffrage. As one of the so-called “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” along with Justices McReynolds, Van Devanter and Butler, Justice Sutherland has been pilloried for striking down portions of the New Deal—and yet some scholars in recent years have reappraised his role in achieving progressive judicial outcomes.

Original Publication Citation

Carter, E. L., & Phillips, J. C. (2008). The Mormon Education of a Gentile Justice: George Sutherland and Brigham Young Academy. J. Sup. Ct. Hist., 33, 322.