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West Virginia Law Review

Document Type

Article

Abstract

During the founding era, the American Chief Justice was nearly unrecognizable to modern eyes. Rather than a purely judicial officer, the Chief Justice was a multi-purpose minister, serving as a judge, an administrator, a diplomat, and an advisor. He was what we call the “multi-purpose Chief Justice.” The multi-purpose Chief Justice of the Early Republic originated with the ancient English office of the Lord Chief Justice. English judges historically served as multi-purpose ministers to the king, engaging in administrative and even political tasks. This was especially true for the Lord Chief Justice. Even as other English judges settled into more limited judicial roles, the Lord Chief Justice remained deeply integrated in British politics and government. The paradigmatic multi-purpose Chief Justice was Lord Mansfield, whose tenure from 1757 until 1789 profoundly influenced the American Framers. This Article contends that the English conception of a multi-purpose Chief Justice accompanied the title “Chief Justice” to America. The text of the Constitution, the debates at the Constitutional Convention, and the broader legal archive together indicate that the Framers expected the American “Chief Justice” to look and act like its English antecedent. The first Chief Justice, John Jay, did not disappoint. Jay was a Chief Justice cast in the mold of Lord Mansfield, presiding over the Supreme Court while also serving on administrative commissions, engaging in diplomacy, and routinely offering the President legal and political advice. Our recovery of the Chief Justice’s transatlantic origins offers a new angle on both English legal institutions and on the early American Chief Justice. It also poses questions about the judicial role and the separation of powers, highlighting the tension between modern doctrine and the actual practice of the Framers in the context of the judiciary.

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