Monday, February 8, 2021

February 8, 1941. The passing of Willis Van Devanter.

 


Willis Van Devanter, the only Wyoming Supreme Court Justice (albeit only very briefly) to serve on the United States Supreme Court, died on this day in 1941.  He was living in Washington D. C. in retirement.

His early legal career is associated with Wyoming, and he had been a lawyer for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association during its more infamous period.  His time in Wyoming, however, during which he lived in Cheyenne, was brief.  It served him well, however, as he advanced rapidly in his career in part because this was something that could more readily occur in still frontier Wyoming.  Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals after he had served a stint as an attorney for the US, and Taft elevated him to the Supreme Court.  He'd been a judicial opponent of the New Deal.  He'd been retired for five years at the time of his death at age 80.

On the same day Bulgaria agreed to allow German troops to cross Bulgarian territory and German troops commenced their cross sea transit to Libya.

The British, on this day, incorporated Americans into their eves dropping activities at Bletchley Park.

More on what was going on in World War Two on this day:

Today in World War II History—February 8, 1941

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