Thomas M. Cooley

Thomas McIntyre Cooley (January 6, 1824 – September 12, 1898) was an American jurist who served on the Michigan Supreme Court from 1864 to 1885, presiding as its Chief Justice for his final year. He also served as the first chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Cooley was one of the first three faculty members of the University of Michigan Law School and served as its dean from 1871 to 1883. During his tenure, he published widely read treatises on constitutional, taxation, and tort law. Cooley Law School is named in his honor.

Early life and career Thomas McIntyre Cooley was born on January 6, 1824, in Attica, New York, to Thomas Cooley and Rachel Hubbard who had come from Massachusetts to take up farming. While his father sought to have Cooley join the family farm, his mother encouraged him to continue studying Latin at Attica Academy. In 1842, he began studying law under Theron G. Strong in Palmyra, New York. After continuing to study with the law firm Tiffany & Beman in Adrian, Michigan, Cooley passed the bar in 1846.

From 1848 to 1854, Cooley partnered with the firm Beman & Beecher in Adrian, while also serving as commissioner of the circuit court, village recorder, and editor of the local newspaper, the Adrian Watchtower. In 1854, he briefly entered the real estate business in Toledo, Ohio, but after losing an election to become the city's district judge, he returned to Adrian to partner with future governor Charles Croswell. In 1848, Cooley wrote poems criticizing slavery and co-founded the Michigan chapter of the Free Soil Party, and in 1856, he switched to the Republican Party based on its promotion of legal equality.

In 1857, the Michigan Legislature appointed Cooley as compiler of its statutes. His success in that role led the Michigan Supreme Court to appoint him as its reporter of decisions. In 1859, the newly established University of Michigan Law School chose Cooley as one of its first three faculty members, and he continued teaching until 1884. Cooley designed the curriculum to follow Joseph Story's approach at Harvard Law School of lecture-based instruction.

In 1870, Cooley published an edited edition of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, followed by an updated edition of Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States in 1874 that addressed the Reconstruction Amendments. Returning to original works, Cooley published A Treatise on the Law of Taxation Including the Law of Local Assessments in 1876, A Treatise on the Law of Torts or the Wrongs Which Arise Independently of Contract in 1879, and The General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States of America in 1880.

In 1893, Cooley published a widely-cited article in Forum entitled "Grave Obstacles to Hawaiian Annexation." This article argued against American imperialism as unconstitutional and racially divisive. Using his reputation as a constitutional law scholar, Cooley later opposed the Newlands Resolution, which annexed Hawaii, as exceeding Congress' treaty-making authority.

Cooley rejected the use of mandamus to force a governor into legal compliance, holding that the public could only address officials' illegal acts by persuading the legislature to pursue impeachment. Cooley in 1871 stated, "local government is a matter of absolute right; and the state cannot take it away".

Espousing an early form of rational basis review, Cooley cautioned that laws should only be struck down where clearly unconstitutional. In People v. Salem (Mich. 1870), Cooley held that it was unconstitutional for the state to tax the public to fund a privately operated railroad even if the business could boost the regional economy.

In 1869, Cooley ended racial segregation of Detroit schools on statutory grounds, only alluding to the likely unconstitutionality of such discrimination. In 1881, he dissented in a newspaper libel case, advocating the actual malice standard ultimately adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) for claims brought by public figures. In the 1884 United States elections, Cooley was a Mugwump who supported President Grover Cleveland, alienating his traditional base of Republican Party supporters. He further lost the support of both Detroit newspapers by countering one's opposition to University of Michigan President James Burrill Angell and ruling against the other in a libel case. After losing his seat, Cooley was unable to secure either party's support to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, as he was considered insufficiently committed to both. In March 1887, Cooley left that position upon his appointment as the inaugural chair of the Interstate Commerce Commission by President Cleveland, who saw Cooley as balanced between the interests of workers and railroads.

Established in 1972, Cooley Law School is named in his honor. In 1986, the State Bar of Michigan recognized Cooley's first law office on Maumee Street in Adrian, Michigan, as the state's third legal milestone. Cooley High School in Detroit and Cooley Elementary School in Waterford, Michigan, are named in Cooley's honor.