Charles Fairman – författare

In this supplement to Volume 7 of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States, Charles Fairman examines the Electoral Commission of 1877, which was headed by Justice Joseph P. Bradley. In the disputed presidential election of 1876, the Supreme Court was involved through the appointment of five justices to the commission of fifteen created by Congress to resolve the stalemate arising from the political division between the Senate and House. Divided seven to seven along party lines, the decisive vote and opinion was that of the member appointed for judicial impartiality, Justice Bradley. In his study of the Electoral Commission of 1877, Fairman sheds new light on this controversial historical event, vindicating Justice Bradley against his detractors. This book represents an important revision of conventional narratives of the Electoral Commission, combining intensive research with all the fascination of a detective story.

With this seventh volume of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States, Charles Fairman completes his study of the Supreme Court in the post-Civil War period of 1864-88. In the previous volume, Fairman covered the Chief Justiceship of Salmon P. Chase; the present volume deals with the tenure of Morrison R. Waite, President Grant's fifth choice for the office. Fairman explores the significance of the Court's tentative first steps on the unending road of decisions designed to clarify and resolve some of the most persistent issues of American public law, and of a national common market. Fairman identifies the reconciliation between North and South as the most pressing issue during the Reconstruction. Accordingly, the Court was forced to mediate between the new liberties proclaimed by the post-Civil War amendments and enforcement measures and the structure of the federal system bequeathed to it by the Founders of the Republic.

Reconstruction and Reunion, 1864-1888, Part 1A is the first part of the sixth volume of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the United States. In these volumes, Charles Fairman examines the activity of the Supreme Court during the tenure of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, considering issues of procedure, doctrine, technicalities of pleading, and the precedents and consequences of the Court's work. The first of the two volumes is devoted to judicial politics and the internal history of the Court during the politically and constitutionally turbulent Reconstruction period. Discussions of specific cases as they relate to the constitutional issues that stemmed from the war's conduct contribute to an overall picture of the Supreme Court's role in Reconstruction and its relationship to presidential and congressional Reconstruction policies.