HUNT, WARD
The legal career of Ward Hunt peaked when he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by
President ULYSSES S. GRANT in 1873. Hunt held a seat on the High Court for nine years, until
January 1882. Although he was well liked and respected as a diligent lawyer and jurist, Ward’s
tenure on the Court was unspectacular and marked by a forced retirement.
Hunt was born June 14, 1810, in Utica, New
York, to Montgomery Hunt and Elizabeth
Stringham Hunt. He studied at the Oxford
Academy, in England and the Geneva Academy,
in Switzerland. In 1828 he graduated with hon-
ors from Union College, in Schenectady, New
York. He attended law school in Litchfield, Con-
necticut. He returned to Utica to work in a local
law office, and was admitted to the bar in 1831.
Hunt married Mary Ann Savage in 1837,
and they raised three children until her death in
1845. Eight years later he married Maria Taylor.
With his partner, Hiram Denio, Hunt ran a suc-
cessful law practice in Utica for thirty-one years.
While practicing law Hunt became active in pol-
itics. He supported the policies of ANDREW
JACKSON, who defended the interests of the
middle class and served two terms as president.
In 1838 Hunt was elected to the New York legis-
lature, where he served one term, and in 1844 he
was elected mayor of Utica.
In the 1840s Hunt came to differ with the
DEMOCRATIC PARTY when he opposed the
expansion of SLAVERY and the annexation of
Texas. In 1848 Hunt supported the Free-Soil
presidential candidacy of ex-Democrat and ex-
president MARTIN VAN BUREN, who was
defeated. Hunt ran for a spot on the New York
Supreme Court in 1853, but he lost the election,
a result that observers attributed to his defection
from the Democratic party. In 1855 Hunt helped
to form the REPUBLICAN PARTY in the state of
New York. As a Republican he was elected to the
New York Court of Appeals in 1865.
After three years on the New York Court of
Appeals, Hunt was promoted to chief justice. A
year later, in 1869, the New York court system
was reorganized by an amendment to the state
constitution, and Hunt was named commissioner of appeals.He held that position for three
years, until January 1873, when he replaced fel-
low New Yorker SAMUEL NELSON as an associate
justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hunt had strong ties to the Republican
party, and he had risen in the judicial ranks
along with the party.At that time the Republican
party promoted expansive federal powers. These
powers were critical to the ABOLITION of slavery
and the defeat of the Confederate forces in the
Civil War. However, by the mid-1870s, the
nation’s appreciation of federal power had
waned, and the judiciary began to emphasize the
rights of the states. Perhaps as a result of this
shift, Hunt, with his Republican views, authored
few major opinions.
Hunt delivered his most memorable opinion
in United States v. Reese, 92 U.S. (2 Otto) 214, 23
L. Ed. 563 (1875). In Reese the High Court
struck down parts of the Enforcement Act of
1870, a federal act passed to ensure that African
Americans would be allowed to vote. The act
had been passed by Congress pursuant to the
FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT, which provides, “The
right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States
or by any State on account of race, color, or pre-
vious condition of servitude.” Reese was brought
by the U.S. government against two inspectors at
a municipal election in Kentucky, alleging that
they had refused to receive and count the vote of
William Garner, an African American.
According to the majority in Reese, the Fif-
teenth Amendment did not confer on all adult
citizens the right to vote. Rather, it merely pre-
vented the state and federal governments from
denying the right to vote based on race, color, or
previous condition of servitude. Therefore, it
was not within the power of the federal govern-
ment to require that states give the vote to all
adult citizens. Because parts of the Enforcement
Act did not limit the application of criminal
penalties to wrongful refusals based on race, the
Court ruled that those parts unconstitutionally
infringed on the powers of the states.
Hunt was the only dissenting justice. He
argued that the Fifteenth Amendment was
intended to confer on all persons the same polit-
ical rights given to white persons. The guarantee
of the right to vote, according to Hunt, was one
of those rights. He declared that the persons
affected in the case “were citizens of the United
States” and that the subject of the case “was the
