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Joseph Story

Joseph Story
Daguerreotype of Joseph Story, 1844 (edit).jpg
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
February 3, 1812 – September 10, 1845
Nominated by James Madison
Preceded by William Cushing
Succeeded by Levi Woodbury
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 2nd district
In office
May 23, 1808 – March 4, 1809
Preceded by Jacob Crowninshield
Succeeded by Benjamin Pickman Jr.
Personal details
Born (1779-09-18)September 18, 1779
Marblehead, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died September 10, 1845(1845-09-10) (aged 65)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party Democratic-Republican
Education Harvard University (BA)

Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 – September 10, 1845) was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad case, and especially for his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first published in 1833. Dominating the field in the 19th century, this work is a cornerstone of early American jurisprudence. It is the second comprehensive treatise on the provisions of the U.S. Constitution and remains a critical source of historical information about the forming of the American republic and the early struggles to define its law.

Story opposed Jacksonian democracy, saying it was "oppression" of property rights by republican governments when popular majorities began (in the 1830s) to restrict and erode the property rights of the minority of rich men. R. Kent Newmyer presents Story as a "Statesman of the Old Republic" who tried to be above democratic politics and to shape the law in accordance with the republicanism of Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall and the New England Whigs of the 1820s and 1830s, including Daniel Webster. Historians agree that Justice Joseph Story reshaped American law—as much or more than Marshall or anyone else—in a conservative direction that protected property rights.

He was uniquely honored in the historical Steven Spielberg film Amistad when he was portrayed by retired Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court Harry Blackmun. Justice Blackmun portrays Justice Story reading the Supreme Court's decision in the case in which the film was based, and for which Justice Story was most widely remembered, United States v. The Amistad Africans, et al. This is the only time in known film history that an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court has portrayed another Associate Justice.


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