APPLETON, JOHN
JOHN APPLETON was a prominent nineteenth century Maine lawyer and judge. He served as a justice and chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1852 to 1883. During his long tenure he came to be recognized for his opposition to state laws that granted loans or tax exemptions to businesses. His belief in free market capitalism translated into minimal government regulation of business and no government breaks for business. In addition Appleton conconcerned himself with rethinking COMMON LAW RULES OF EVIDENCE.
Appleton was born on July 12, 1804, in New
Ipswich, New Hampshire. He graduated from
Bowdoin College—where his uncle, Jesse Appleton,
was president—in 1822 and then apprenticed
himself to a New Hampshire lawyer to gain
the knowledge needed to become a member of
the bar. Appleton was admitted to the bar in
1826 and moved to Sebec, Maine, to start a private
practice. Maine had been admitted to the
Union in 1820 and was a growing, prosperous
state. Appleton moved again to Bangor in 1838
and continued his private law practice. A great
reader of philosophy and law, Appleton was
attracted to the UTILITARIAN philosophy of
JEREMY BENTHAM. An interest in the law from
a purely intellectual viewpoint led him to pursue
a judgeship.
In 1841 he was appointed the reporter of
decisions for the Maine Supreme Judicial Court,
the state’s highest court. In this capacity Appleton
edited the opinions of the justices, which gave him valuable insights into the workings of
an appellate court. His diligence and intellectual esteem led to his appointment as a justice of the court in 1852. Eleven years later he was elevated to chief justice, a position he held for the next 31 years.
Apart from his judicial opinions, Appleton
published in 1860 a treatise entitled The Rules of
Evidence, Stated and Discussed.
Appleton’s opinions from the early 1870s on
the proper relationship between government
and business have come to be regarded as
groundbreaking expressions of laissez-faire constitutionalism.
After the Civil War state governments
had rushed to give railroads and other
businesses tax exemptions, loans, and property
EASEMENTS. When the town of Jay sought legislative
authority to lend $10,000 to private
entrepreneurs to move their mill and factory to
the town, the legislature sought an ADVISORY
OPINION from Maine’s supreme court. In a
bluntly worded opinion, Appleton declared that
the legislature had no authority to help private
businesses through gifts or loans.When the legislature
ignored this opinion and authorized the
funding, Appleton issued an opinion ruling the
act unconstitutional. Appleton’s analysis foreshadowed
the SUBSTANTIVE DUE PROCESS doctrine
that the U.S. Supreme Court employed to
strike down government regulations of business.
Appleton finally retired in 1883. He died on
February 7, 1891, in Bangor, Maine.
FURTHER READINGS
Gold, David M. 2000. “The Tradition of Substantive Judicial
Review: A Case Study of Continuity in Constitutional
Jurisprudence.”Maine Law Review 52.
—. 1990. The Shaping of Nineteenth-Century Law: John
Appleton and Responsible Individualism. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood.
Witt, John Fabian. 1999. “Making the Fifth: The Constitutionalization
of American Self-Incrimination Doctrine.”
Texas Law Review 77.
Karsten, Peter. 1997. “Supervising the ‘Spoiled Children of
Legislation’: Judicial Judgments Involving Quasi-Public
Corporations in the Nineteenth-Century United
States.” American Journal of Legal History 41.
