Harlan F. Stone

Who was Harlan F. Stone?

Harlan Fiske Stone was an American lawyer and jurist. A native of New Hampshire, he served as the dean of Columbia Law School, his alma mater, in the early 20th century. As a member of the Republican Party, he was appointed as the 52nd Attorney General of the United States before becoming an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1925. In 1941, Stone became the 12th Chief Justice of the United States, serving until his death in 1946 – one of the shortest terms of any Chief Justice. Stone was the first Chief Justice not to have served in elected office. His most famous dictum was: "Courts are not the only agency of government that must be assumed to have capacity to govern."