Joseph Story

Story was one of the most intellectually important justices of the Marshall Court. Unlike many of his colleagues, he combined judicial service with a major career in legal scholarship, making his influence extend far beyond his individual Supreme Court opinions. His Commentaries on the Constitution became a foundational text for generations of American lawyers and judges.

Story was born on September 18, 1779, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. His father, Elisha Story, was a physician and prominent participant in the Revolutionary movement. Story attended Harvard College, graduating in 1798, and studied law before establishing himself as a lawyer in Salem.

Story entered Massachusetts politics and served in the state legislature before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1808. He became one of the Democratic-Republicans' leading advocates for commercial and maritime legislation. Madison appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1811, making him, at thirty-two, the youngest person ever appointed to the Court at that time.

Story became one of the Court's most prolific opinion writers. He authored major opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816), which defended the Supreme Court's appellate authority over state courts in federal questions; Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), where he joined the majority protecting contracts; and Swift v. Tyson (1842), which developed the federal general-common-law doctrine in diversity cases. He also wrote important admiralty and commercial opinions and played a major role in developing federal jurisdiction.

Story's legal scholarship was almost as influential as his judging. His Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, published beginning in 1833, offered an extensive explanation of the constitutional system from a nationalist perspective.

Story remained on the Supreme Court until his death in 1845. He also served as Dane Professor of Law at Harvard and helped establish Harvard Law School as a major center of legal education. He died in Cambridge on September 10, 1845, just eight days before his sixty-sixth birthday.

Story was one of the most important constitutional scholars in American history. His writings helped establish a nationalist interpretation of the Constitution and influenced generations of lawyers, judges, and political thinkers. His work also demonstrates the importance of nineteenth-century legal treatises as evidence of constitutional interpretation, although they must be distinguished from the constitutional text and the writings of the founding generation themselves.

Constitutional approach: Original/structural nationalist constitutionalist, with natural-law elements. Story was emphatically not a modern living constitutionalist, but neither was he a narrow literalist. He believed constitutional interpretation required attention to text, structure, historical context, established legal principles, and the purposes of the constitutional system.

Key decisions

Separate opinions: Story wrote both majority and separate opinions during his career, but he was generally aligned with Marshall's nationalist majority. His most consequential opinions were usually opinions of the Court, particularly Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, Prigg, and Swift.