Joseph McKenna, WEEMS v. U.S., 2 Quotes

A collection of quotes by Joseph McKenna, WEEMS v. U.S., 2.

Joseph McKenna was born on August 10, 1843, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended St. Joseph's College and later pursued legal studies at the University of California, Hastings College of Law while working as a clerk in a law firm. McKenna was admitted to the California bar in 1865 and started his legal career in San Francisco.

In 1867, he became the District Attorney of Solano County and later served as a judge in the same county. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed McKenna as the Ninth Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals. He served in this position until 1892 when President Benjamin Harrison nominated him as the Attorney General of the United States.

After serving as the Attorney General for four years, McKenna transitioned to the Supreme Court. In 1897, President William McKinley appointed him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a position he held until his retirement in 1925. During his tenure, McKenna was involved in significant cases such as WEEMS v. U.S., where the court upheld the constitutionality of the punishment of hard labor for those convicted of crimes without a jury trial.

Joseph McKenna passed away on November 21, 1926, in Washington, D.C., leaving behind a legacy as a respected jurist and public servant.

Legislation, both statutory and constitutional, is enacted, it is true, from an experience of evils but its general language should not, therefore, be necessarily confined to the form that evil had theretofore taken. Time works changes, brings into existence new conditions and purposes. Therefore a principle, to be vital, must be capable of wider application than the mischief which gave it birth. This is peculiarly true of constitutions. They are not ephemeral enactments, designed to meet passing occasions. They are, to use the words of Chief Justice Marshall, 'designed to approach immortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it.' The future is their care, and provision for events of good and bad tendencies of which no prophecy can be made. In the application of a constitution, therefore, our contemplation cannot be only of what has been, but of what may be. Under any other rule a constitution would indeed be as easy of application as it would be deficient in efficacy and power. Its general principles would have little value, and be converted by precedent into impotent and lifeless formulas. Rights declared in words might be lost in reality. And this has been recognized. The meaning and vitality of the Constitution have developed against narrow and restrictive construction.

Joseph McKenna, WEEMS v. U.S., 2

Law