William Strong (Pennsylvania judge)

William Strong (May 6, 1808 – August 19, 1895) was an American jurist and politician. He was a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States under President Ulysses S. Grant.

Strong was born in Somers, Connecticut and later moved to Pennsylvania. He was the eldest of eleven children of William Lightbourn Strong and Harriet (Deming) Strong. He was the brother of Newton Deming Strong and the cousin of U.S. Representative Theron Rudd Strong of New York. William Strong attended the Munson Academy in Massachusetts, and graduated from Yale University in 1828 Phi Beta Kappa. He taught school in Burlington, New Jersey while studying law with Garret D. Wall, and then completed his legal education with a six-month course at Yale Law School. After being admitted to the bar Strong started a legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania, remaining in practice from 1832 to 1857.

In 1846, Strong was elected to the United States House of Representatives as an abolitionist Democrat. Strong served two terms in the House, and was the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Elections during his second term. He did not seek reelection in 1850, but returned to private practice.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Strong was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1857 as a Democrat. Strong switched to the Republican Party soon after taking the bench. He resigned from the court in 1868 to return to a lucrative private practice in Philadelphia.

United States Supreme Court

When Justice Robert C. Grier retired from the U.S. Supreme Court, Strong was suggested as a possible replacement. However, President Ulysses S. Grant was heavily lobbied to nominate former Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Stanton was nominated, and confirmed by the United States Senate, but he died just four days later without having served on the Court. Grant then nominated Strong on February 7, 1870, who was confirmed without a recorded vote and was sworn in on March 14, 1870. Justice Strong wrote the opinion for an early equal protection case in Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303 (1879).

1876 Election

Strong was one of five Supreme Court Justices who sat on the Electoral Commission that was convened to resolve the disputed electoral votes in the U.S. presidential election of 1876. Strong voted along with his fellow Republicans, who held the majority on the Commission, to award every disputed vote to Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican candidate, thus ensuring his presidency.

Strong served on the Supreme Court until December 14, 1880, when he retired despite still being in good health, partly to set an example to several infirm justices who refused to give up their seats. Strong resumed the practice of law and pursued religious causes until his death, at Lake Minnewaska in Ulster County, New York, on August 19, 1895. He was interred in Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, Pennsylvania. The Historical Society of Berks County has in its collection a few pieces relating to Justice Strong.