David Davis, Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Judge

Raymond J. McKoski is a retired Illinois Circuit Judge and adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. He is the author of Judges in Street Clothes: Acting Ethically Off-the-Bench.

“Drawing on his more than two decades of experience as a trial judge, historical researcher, and expert on judicial ethics, Raymond J. McKoski restores David Davis’s place in state and federal judicial history as a model of impartiality on the bench. In an era when Americans have become increasingly skeptical about partisanship and the courts, Judge Davis serves as a model of judicial decision making.”--Jonathan W. White, author of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize-winning A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House

• Acknowledgments Introduction A Biographical Sketch of David Davis Part I Davis, Lincoln, and the U.S. Senate Lincoln’s First U.S. Senate Campaign Lincoln’s Second Senate Defeat Part II Davis, Lincoln, and the Presidency Davis Secures Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Nomination Davis and the 1860 General Election Part III Davis, Lincoln, and the U.S. Supreme Court Lincoln Puts Davis on the Supreme Court Justice Davis and Wartime Presidential Edicts Part IV Judge Davis: A Model of Judicial Impartiality Impartiality on the Trial Court Bench Impartiality on the Supreme Court Bench Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index