Taft: President of the United States and William Howard Taft Essay

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William Howard Taft was born in 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of 34, he was appointed Circuit Court Judge. From early in his career, Taft aspired to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He served as President from 1909-1913. In 1921, President Warren Harding fulfilled Taft’s dream by appointing him Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taft’s most prominent opinion came in Meyers vs. United States. He remained in office of Chief Justice until shortly before his death in 1930. William Howard Taft was the only man to have led both the Executive and Judicial branches of the United States government. President William Howard Taft’s interpretation of executive power: “The president can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power or justly implied or included within such express grant as proper and necessary to its exercise.” While in office, Congress passed the Mann Elkins Act of 1910, empowering the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend railroad rate hikes and to set rates. The act also expanded the ICC’s jurisdiction to cover telephones, telegraphs, and radios. Taft vetoed the admissions of Arizona and New Mexico to statehood. He pushed the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment, which allowed the federal government to tax incomes. He reluctantly advocated the Seventeenth Amendment which stated direct election of senators by the people as opposed to the appointment by state legislatures. “In 1910 and 1911, Taft made a notable effort to secure the ratification of arbitration treaties which had been negotiated with Great Brittan and France” (Patterson). He was an advocate of world peace. Taft promoted an administration innovation whereby the President would submit a budget to Congress. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 gave the President new capacities for efficiency and control in the executive branch. Taft approved the dividing of the Department of Commerce and Labor into two cabinet departments. He was the first president to use the automobile in official life at Washington. He was the last president to have a cow at the White House for fresh milk. He was a overweight man during his presidency. He got stuck in a bathtub and had a larger tub installed at the White House. Taft was the first president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. “There is nothing I would have loved more than being chief justice of the United States” Taft remarked and took oath on July 11, 1921. During Taft’s presidency, he reorganized the Supreme Court. He made six appointments in a court of nine. His temperament was judicial rather than executive. “Chief Justice Taft strove to improve the machinery of the court and to expedite the vast amount of litigation and to lesson the law’s delays” (Patterson). In 1922, Taft took a trip to England to study the English courts and learn how they dispose of a large number of cases expeditiously. He sat on the bench with the Judges and was made Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple. Mr. and Mrs. Taft were received by King George and Queen Mary as state visitors. After his return from England, Taft began clearing up the court congestion. The Judiciary Act of 1925 was introduced by Taft. He promoted the measure as a administrative-efficiency reform. Taft proposed assurance of national judicial supremacy. The Supreme Court now resolved public policy issues of national importance. “Most cases reach the Supreme Court when a
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