Field, Stephen Johnson

Born November 4, 1816, in Haddam, CT
Died April 9, 1899, in Washington, DC

Federal Judicial Service:
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Nominated by Abraham Lincoln on March 6, 1863, to a new seat authorized by 12 Stat. 794. Confirmed by the Senate on March 10, 1863, and received commission on March 10, 1863. Service terminated on December 1, 1897, due to retirement.

Supreme Court Oath:
May 20, 1863

Allotment as Circuit Justice:

Tenth Circuit, June 22, 1863-July 23, 1866
Ninth Circuit, April 8, 1867-December 1, 1897
Second Circuit, January 30, 1882-April 2, 1882

Education:
Williams College, B.A., 1837
Read law, 1841

Professional Career:

Private practice, New York City, 1841-1848
Private practice, San Francisco, California, 1850
Private practice, Marysville, California, 1850-1857
Alcalde, Marysville, California, 1850
State assemblyman, California, 1850-1851
Justice, Supreme Court of California, 1857-1863; chief justice, 1859-1863

Other Nominations/Recess Appointments:

Nominated to U.S. Circuit Court for the Districts of California, February 25, 1863; no Senate vote

Bibliography

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of the Life of Stephen J. Field: A Character Study. San Francisco: History Co, 1891.

Burrell, Thomas H. “Justice Stephen Field’s Expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment: From the Safeguards of Federalism to a State of Judicial Hegemony.” Gonzaga Law Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (2007-2008).

Cachàn, Manuel. “Justice Stephen Field and ‘Free Soil, Free Labor Constitutionalism’: Reconsidering Revisionism.” Law and History Review, vol. 20, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 541-77.

Eastman, John C. and Timothy Sandefur. “Stephen Field: Frontier Justice or the Justice on the Natural Rights Frontier?” Nexus – A Journal of Opinion, vol. 6 (2001): 121-33.

Graham, Howard Jay. “Justice Field and the Fourteenth Amendment.” Yale Law Journal, vol. 52, no. 4 (Sept. 1943): 851-89.

Hogan, John C. and Ewald W. Schnitzer. “The Last Will and Testament of Stephen J. Field.” California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1 (Mar. 1956): 41-55.

House, A.F. “Mr. Justice Field and Attorney General Garland.” Arkansas Law Review, vol. 3 (Summer 1943): 266-78.

Johnson, J. Edward. “Stephen J. Field.” Journal of the State Bar of California, vol. 23, no. 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1948): 82-90.

Kens, Paul. Justice Stephen Field: Shaping Liberty from the Gold Rush to the Gilded Age. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1997.

King, Ralph. “Pennoyer v. Neff: Legal Landmark.” Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 1 (Mar. 1972): 60-2.

McCloskey, Robert G. American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise, 1865-1910: A Study of William Graham Sumner, Stephen J. Field and Andrew Carnegie. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

McCurdy, Charles W. “Stephen J. Field and Public Land Law Development in California, 1850-1866: A Case Study of Judicial Resource Allocation in Nineteenth Century America.” Law & Society Review, vol. 10, no. 2 (Winter 1976): 235-67.

McMurray, Orrin K. “Field’s Work as a Lawyer and Judge in California.” California Law Review, vol. 5 (Jan. 1917): 87-107.

Pomeroy, John Norton. Some Account of the Work of Stephen J. Field as Legislator, State Judge, and Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. California: C.B. Smith, 1881.

Swisher, Carl Brent. Stephen J. Field: Craftsman of the Law. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1930.

Taylor, John M. Justice Stephen J. Field. Gettysburg, Pa.: National Historical Society, 1974.

Tocklin, Adrian M. “Pennoyer v. Neff: The Hidden Agenda of Stephen J. Field.” Seton Hall Law Review, vol. 28, no. 1 (1997): 75-141.

Westin, Alan F. “Stephen J. Field and the Headnote to O’Neil v. Vermont: A Snapshot of the Fuller Court at Work.” Yale Law Journal, vol. 67, no. 3 (Jan. 1958): 363-83.

Manuscript Collections

University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, Cal.
Biographical materials relating to Stephen Johnson Field: Yuba County, n.d.
2 folders; part of Hubert Howe Bancroft collection.

Stephen Field correspondence, 1860-1895.
7 folders; mainly letters written by Field.

Stephen Field letters addressed to him, 1862-1896.
1 box; finding aid; correspondence to Field commenting on U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Four letters to Professor John Norton Pomeroy: Washington, D.C.: ALS, 1881-1884.
32 pp.; letters written in various hands, signed and with a few corrections by Stephen Field.

Running for the legislature: typescript, n.d.
8 pp.; account of Field's campaign and election to the California state legislature from Yuba County in 1850.

Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Stephen Johnson Field papers, 1884.
2 items; part of Miscellaneous Manuscripts collection.

Federal Judicial Center

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Field, Stephen Johnson