Horace Harmon Lurton

U.S. Circuit Court

Lurton was nominated by President Grover Cleveland on March 22, 1893, to a joint seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge Howell Edmunds Jackson. to succeed Rufus W. Peckham. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 20, 1909, a progressive Supreme Court justice. The most notable opinion he authored was probably the opinion of the Court in Coyle v. Smith, 221 U.S. 559 (1911), which held that the federal government could not tell a state where to locate its capital, as all states must be on "equal footing."

Death

Lurton's tenure on the Court was brief, as he served only four years before dying in Atlantic City, New Jersey of a heart attack on July 12, 1914. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Legacy and honors

During World War II the Liberty ship was built in Brunswick, Georgia, and named in his honor.