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William Howard Taft the Judicial Spirit

Ghosts-of-New-Haven-Blog-7a-Chief-Justice-William-Howard-Taft

Yale University Law School, at 127 Wall Street, was founded in 1824.  It is the most selective of any United States law school because of its excellence and its small enrollment. Yale Law School has been ranked number one in the country by U.S. News and World Report in every year in which the magazine has published law school rankings.  Presidents Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton received their law degrees at Yale Law School.  In 2014, current U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Soto-mayor are alumni of the law school.  Other members have included Abe Fortas, Potter Stewart, and Byron R. White.

Former U.S. President William Howard Taft was a professor of constitutional law at the Yale University Law School from 1913 until he resigned to become Chief Justice of the United States in 1921.  He was the most important Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after John Marshall because he was responsible for the Supreme Court having its own home instead of using a chamber in the Capitol Building, being able to set its own agenda of what cases to hear, and having all federal courts under its jurisdiction.

 

William Howard Taft now and then steps in to listen to a lecture at his old stomping grounds since he died in 1930 on the job in Washington, DC.  He is spotted now and then in the audience of new law school building, constructed a year after his death.. You would not recognize William Howard Taft as a haunt because our fattest president lost the weight after he left the White House. Being Chief Justice was his dream job. He has once more found his happy place at Yale University.

Ghosts of New Haven Blog 7 William Howard Taft the Judicial Spirit © 2017 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg, Ghost with a Blog # Ghost

Yale University Law School

127 Wall Street

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