Who Is William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the only political officer to hold rank as the 27th President of the United States. He also later went on to serve as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court in 1921.

Born to a powerful family, Taft's life always revolved around the political world, starting with the appointment as Supreme Judge in 1887. In 1904 he then became President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt appointed Taft as Secretary of War with all the intentions of training him to succeed as President, which he did in 1908.

In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, which Taft assumed until his death in 1930. During his life, William Howard Taft has always been an avid traveller. After his presidential reign, he spent time furthering his education and developing different techniques to resolve disagreements outside of the Court. Taft also spent time in the search of world peace before he assumed role as Chief Justice.

The goal of William Howard Taft was to gain the title as Chief of Justice and when he gained power, he traveled to Britain to research the different practices of their court system. He was fascinated by the way the British court system seemed to resolve a large number of cases quickly and was influenced to bring this practice back to America.

Upon return to America, Taft introduced the Judiciary Act of 1925. This Act reduced the workload of the Supreme Court, enabling it to hold preference over the cases they oversaw. The implementation of this Act gave the Supreme Court a better handle on cases of national importance, allowing the courts to work more efficiently.

Many of the implementations of William Howard Taft gave the Supreme Court more control, while supporting new legislation and organizing the roles of the Judicial Conference. Taft's decisions also gave power to the Supreme Court to oversee the Federal courts which, at the time, were very disorganized.

Many additional rulings by Taft were over the continued battle of desegregating the school systems. In the Lum v. Rice case of 1927, the Court overruled the prevention of Asian children attending white schools during racial segregation. Some rulings opposed business practices that used child laborers such as the Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Company case of 1922. Other rulings targeted cases regarding the use of the Fourth Amendment as well as Federal income tax laws.

Taft continued to bring structure to the development of the Supreme Court by fighting for the construction of a separate building, just for the Supreme Court system. In his argument, Taft stated that it was important for the Supreme Court to branch itself separately from the daily practices of the Federal Government.However, Taft did not live to see the completion of this building since it was finished in 1935 after his passing.

Taft helped streamline many of the business practices of the Supreme Court under his ruling. He implemented decisions that distinguished the responsibilities of the Supreme Court giving them more organization and control.

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