born Sept. 18, 1779, Marblehead, Mass., U.S.
died Sept. 10, 1845, Cambridge, Mass.
U.S. jurist.
After graduating from Harvard University, he practiced law in Salem, Mass. (1801–11) and served in the state legislature and U.S. Congress (1805–11). In 1811, though he was only 32 and lacked any judicial experience, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by Pres. James Madison . There he joined John Marshall in interpreting the U.S. Constitution in a manner favouring the expansion of federal power. His opinion in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816) established the court's appellate authority over the highest state courts. During his tenure on the court, he taught at Harvard (1829–45), where he became the first Dane Professor of Law and whose endowment funded his influential series of commentaries, including Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833), The Conflict of Laws (1834), and On Equity Jurisprudence (1836). He and James Kent are considered the founders of U.S. equity jurisprudence.