FIELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON
Stephen Johnson Field served as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1863 to 1897, making him the second longest serving justice in the history of the Court. Field was a conservative who consistently upheld the interests of business. He became the prime advocate of the theory of “substantive due process,” which favored private property rights over attempts by state
and federal government to regulate the econ-
omy. Conservatives on the Court used SUBSTAN-
TIVE DUE PROCESS to strike down regulatory
legislation until the 1930s.
Field was born in Haddam, Connecticut, on
November 4, 1816. His family moved to Stock-
bridge, Massachusetts, when he was a young
child. At thirteen he was sent to Turkey to live
with his sister and her missionary husband.
They later moved to Athens, Greece, where Field
remained until entering Williams College in
1833. After graduating in 1837 he read the law
with his older brother, DAVID DUDLEY FIELD,
who had emerged as a prominent New York City
attorney and legal reformer.
In 1849 Field left New York City for the Gold
Rush in northern California. He speculated in
land, developed a thriving legal practice involv-
ing property and mineral rights, and organized
the town of Marysville. He became Marysville’s
mayor and judge. In 1850 he was elected to the
state legislature. He was instrumental in organ-
izing standards of procedure for civil and CRIM-
INAL LAW and he also drafted mining laws. He
ran for the state senate in 1851 but was defeated.
Field was elected to the California Supreme
Court in 1857. He became chief justice in 1859
and served until 1863. He concentrated his
efforts on cases dealing with titles to land and
mineral rights. In 1863 President ABRAHAM LIN-
COLN, a Republican, appointed Field to the U.S.
Supreme Court. Though Field was a Democrat,
he was a loyal Unionist during the Civil War and
