William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States, serving from 1909 to 1913, and the tenth chief justice of the United States, serving from 1921 to 1930, the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection in 1912 by Woodrow Wilson after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death. Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a prominent political family. He graduated from Yale University and the University of Cincinnati Law School, and pursued a legal career in Ohio. He served as a judge of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he made several decisions hostile to organized labour. He also served as the solicitor general of the United States, the governor-general of the Philippines, and the secretary of war under Theodore Roosevelt. As president, Taft sought to continue Roosevelt's progressive policies, but he clashed with the more radical wing of the Republican Party, led by Roosevelt himself. Taft supported the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on many imports, and the Mann–Elkins Act, which increased the regulatory power of the Interstate Commerce Commission. He also initiated the federal income tax and the Sixteenth Amendment. He pursued a foreign policy of "dollar diplomacy", which aimed to promote American economic interests abroad. He intervened in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, and supported the construction of the Panama Canal. He also arbitrated a dispute between Britain and France over the boundaries of Newfoundland. Taft's presidency was marred by a rift with Roosevelt, who challenged him for the Republican nomination in 1912. Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote, allowing Wilson to win the election. Taft returned to Yale as a professor of law, and became an outspoken critic of Wilson's policies. He supported the United States' entry into World War I and the League of Nations, but opposed the Treaty of Versailles. He also denounced the Palmer Raids and the Red Scare. In 1921, he was appointed chief justice by Harding, fulfilling his lifelong ambition. He presided over a conservative court that upheld the constitutionality of Prohibition, but also expanded the rights of free speech and the press. He wrote the majority opinions in Myers v. United States, which affirmed the president's power to remove executive officials, and Ex parte Grossman, which upheld the president's power to grant pardons. He also dissented in Adkins v. Children's Hospital, which struck down a minimum wage law for women. He retired from the court in 1930, due to ill health, and died shortly thereafter. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and respected chief justices in U.S. history, and one of the most successful presidents to have served on the court.