Ward Hunt

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Ward Hunt (June 14, 1810-March 24, 1886), was an American jurist and politician.

Hunt was born and raised in Utica, New York. He graduated from Union College in 1828 and began studying law, for a time under a local judge. After passing the bar in 1831, he established a practice with the judge who had tutored him.

Initially a Jacksonian Democrat, he was elected to the New York Assembly and served one term as mayor of Utica, in 1844. By the end of his mayoral term, however, Hunt had broken with the Democrats over the slavery issue, and in 1856 he became a founder of the New York Republican Party. Hunt remained in private practice until 1865, when he was elected to the New York Court of Appeals. He remained on this court through a statewide judicial reorganization.

Hunt was a friend and patron of political boss Roscoe Conkling, who happened to be an associate of President Ulysses S. Grant. When an opening came up on the Supreme Court, Conkling pushed Grant to nominate Ward for the job.

Hunt had little impact on the court, siding with the majority in all but 22 cases in his ten years on the job. He wrote only four dissenting opinions and none for the majority. His most notable contribution came while riding circuit in New York, where he heard Susan B. Anthony argue that she was constitutionally guaranteed the right to vote and had not broken the law when she voted in the 1872 election; Hunt found that Anthony had indeed broken the law.

In 1878, Hunt suffered a severe stroke, which prevented him from attending court sessions or rendering opinions. Nonetheless he did not retire, because at the time in order to retire with a full pension a person had to put in at least ten years of government service and a minimum age of 70. To encourage him to retire, Congress passed a special provision under which he could receive a pension if he would retire within 30 days; Hunt did so on January 27, 1882, and enjoyed his pension for only four more years before his death in Utica.

[edit] References

• Data drawn in part from the Supreme Court Historical Society and Oyez.

Preceded by: Samuel Nelson

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States January 9, 1873 – January 27, 1882

Succeeded by: Samuel Blatchford

The Chase Court
1873:	N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt
The Waite Court
1874–1877:	N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | D. Davis | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt
1877–1880:	N. Clifford | N.H. Swayne | S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | Wm. Strong | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt | J.M. Harlan
1881:	N. Clifford | S.F. Miller | S.J. Field | J.P. Bradley | W. Hunt | J.M. Harlan | Wm. B. Woods | Th. S. Matthews