January 2,1917 –May 20,1925
Jefferson Beale Browne (June 6,1857 –May 4,1937) was a public official and legislator who also served as a justice of the Florida Supreme Court from 1917 to 1925,including service as chief justice from 1917 to 1923.
Born in Key West,Monroe County,Florida, [1] to businessman and politician Joseph Beverly Browne and Anne (Neives) Browne, [2] Browne's "first job after graduating from high school was as assistant keeper on Fowey Rocks Lighthouse". [3] As a lighthouse keeper,Browne was able to dedicate his long hours of isolation to studying the law. [4] He then received a law degree from the University of Iowa. [5] Browne thereafter had "a hopscotch career",including stints as a "county surveyor,postmaster,city attorney,president of the Florida Senate,U.S. Customs collector at the port of Key West,chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court,and chairman of the Florida Railroad Commission". [6] In 1912,Browne wrote a history of Key West,Key West:The Old and the New. [4] [6]
Browne was "elected to the state Senate in 1890—and became president of the Senate at its first session in April,1891". [5] While serving in this office,he introduced an 1893 bill to grant Henry Flagler's Jacksonville,St. Augustine &Indian River Railway a charter to extend the railroad to the Florida Keys. [5] In 1904,Browne was elected chairman of the Florida Railroad Commission. [5]
Browne was elected to the Florida Supreme Court in 1916,served from January 2,1917,to January 1923 as Chief Justice and from January 1923 to May 20,1925,as an associate justice. [1] As a Justice,Browne was particularly concerned with property rights,and avoiding government encroachment on such rights. He wrestled with the concept of prohibition of alcohol,a major political issue during his time on the court,writing of an inclination to support laws addressing the negative effects of alcohol consumption,but ultimately deciding that protecting personal property rights against government interference was an overriding concern. [7]
Browne died in Key West. [1]
William Squire Kenyon was a United States senator from Iowa,and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven justices—one of whom serves as Chief Justice. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity,and one is selected at large.
Augustus Emmet Maxwell was an American lawyer and politician. Maxwell served in a number of political positions in the State of Florida including as one of Florida's senators to the Confederate States Congress,Florida Secretary of State,and as Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
William Little Frierson was an American lawyer,judge,and politician. During his career he served as the United States Solicitor General (1920–1921),United States Assistant Attorney General (1917–1920),and mayor of Chattanooga,Tennessee (1905–1907).
Fowey Rocks Light is located seven miles southeast of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne. The lighthouse was completed in 1878,replacing the Cape Florida Light. It was automated on May 7,1975,and as of 2021 is still in operation. The structure is cast iron,with a screw-pile foundation,a platform and a skeletal tower. The light is 110 feet above the water. The tower framework is painted brown,while the dwelling and enclosed circular stair to the lantern is painted white. The original lens was a first-order drum Fresnel lens which stood about 12 feet (4 m) high and weighed about a ton (tonne). The light has a nominal range of 15 miles in the white sectors,and 10 miles in the red sectors. It serves as a maker for the entrance to the Hawk Channel passage through the Florida Keys.
The Webb–Kenyon Act was a 1913 law of the United States that regulated the interstate transport of alcoholic beverages. It was meant to provide federal support for the prohibition efforts of individual states in the face of charges that state regulation of alcohol usurped the federal government's exclusive constitutional right to regulate interstate commerce.
Patrick Brett O'Sullivan was a U.S. Representative from Connecticut.
Louie Willard Strum was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
George Pettus Raney was an American attorney and politician who served as the 9th Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
Robert Fenwick Taylor was an American lawyer and a Democratic politician who served on the Florida Supreme Court for 35 years,18 of them as chief justice. He was first appointed on January 1,1891. He resigned February 28,1925. He served three terms as Chief Justice,from 1897 to 1905,from 1915 to 1917,and from 1923 to 1925.
President Richard Nixon entered office in 1969 with Chief Justice Earl Warren having announced his retirement from the Supreme Court of the United States the previous year. Nixon appointed Warren E. Burger to replace Earl Warren,and during his time in office appointed three other members of the Supreme Court:Associate Justices Harry Blackmun,Lewis F. Powell,and William Rehnquist. Nixon also nominated Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell for the vacancy that was ultimately filled by Blackmun,but the nominations were rejected by the United States Senate. Nixon's failed Supreme Court nominations were the first since Herbert Hoover's nomination of John J. Parker was rejected by the Senate.
Robert Tait Ervin was an Alabama lawyer who became United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
Roger I. McDonough was an American judge. He presided over Utah's Third Judicial District Court for ten years. Then in 1938 he was elected to the Utah Supreme Court,where he went on to serve as chief justice from 1947 to 1948 and 1954 to 1959. At the time of his death,his tenure was the longest of any judge or justice in the state's history. McDonough was known for his mediation efforts during the Strike wave of 1945–1946. In the response to the post-war labor crisis,President Harry S. Truman appointed him to the National Labor Relations Board. In this role,he served on multiple emergency fact-finding committees to help settle labor disputes in the steel and railroad industries.
Samuels v. McCurdy,267 U.S. 188 (1925),was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the application of ex post facto in the case where an object was legally purchased and possessed,but was then later banned by statute.
Robert Spratt Cockrell was a justice of the Florida Supreme Court from December 1,1902,to January 2,1917.
Thomas Franklin West was an American attorney and politician from the state of Florida. West served as a justice on the Florida Supreme Court.
Frank Doster was a chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court from January 11,1897,to January 12,1903.