Born: Saturday, April 23rd, 1864
Died: Friday, April 3rd, 1931
Birthplace: Vernon, Ohio
Religion: Republican
Education: Washington and Lee University, B.L. (1886)
Career: Superior Court (1901-1905)
U.S. District Court (1911-1923)
U.S. Court of Appeals (1923-1931)
Served: Tuesday, January 10th, 1905 to Tuesday, February 14th, 1911
Chief Justice: Monday, January 11th, 1909 to Monday, January 9th, 1911
Political Party: Republican
Frank H. Rudkin was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, on the Pennsylvania border a few miles north of Youngstown. His parents, Bernard and Winnifred (Leonard) Rudkin, both natives of Ireland, had five sons and one daughter. Frank attended public schools in Trumbull County, then Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he received a bachelor of law degree in 1886. The following year he moved to Washington and set up practice in Ellensburg and North Yakima. Rudkin developed an expertise in irrigation law, a specialty in considerable demand in that area. The Rudkin “golden rule” to which he adhered in his practice and in which he advised young attorneys was simple and direct: “Now you stay with your law and your evidence, and to hell with friends and foes.”Rudkin had been a Democrat all of his adult life until he split with the party in 1896 over the gold and free silver issue. Although not active in partisan politics, he steadfastly adhered to the tenets of the Republican party after that. He started his judicial career as a justice of the peace in Ellensburg. In 1900 he won election to the superior court bench as a Republican, with jurisdiction over Kittitas, Yakima, and Franklin counties. Again running on the Republican ticket, Rudkin won election to the supreme court in 1904, overwhelming his closest Democratic rival by nearly 48,000 votes. He was reelected in 1910.
While on the state supreme court Rudkin developed a reputation for bluntness, devotion to his profession, and conscientiousness. He was “systematic, and methodical in habit, sober and discreet in judgment, calm in temper [and] diligent in research.”
Rudkin was the first Washington Supreme Court jurist appointed to the federal bench. Upon the recommendation of Senator Wesley Jones, President William Taft selected him to fill the 1911 vacancy on the United States District Court caused by the death of Edward Whitson. Again at the behest of Senator Jones, President Warren Harding elevated Rudkin to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1923. A year later Rudkin was seriously considered for a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court created by the retirement of Justice Joseph McKenna. The Seattle Times speculated on the appointment:
Repeated reports that Associate Judge Joseph McKenna plans soon to retire from the United States Supreme Court are now coupled with the prediction that Judge Frank H. Rudkin of Washington State will be promoted from the Ninth Circuit … to succeed him. Judge Rudkin is said to be highly regarded by his associates on the bench and by members of the bar, who would approve his selection for the highest court as a reward of merit.
The President is not obligated to select a successor to Justice McKenna from the Pacific Coast or the Ninth Circuit, but it is generally believed that this section will be first considered. Justice McKenna was appointed from California.
Not only were McKenna and Rudkin from the West, both were also Irish Catholics. Nonetheless, President Calvin Coolidge turned to his attorney general, Harlan Fiske Stone, to replace McKenna. Rudkin became the presiding judge of the Ninth Circuit in 1931.
Judge Rudkin married Pearl A. Morford of North Yakima on October 3, 1903. After she died the judge married Ellen Rose Dotty in Spokane in 1921. Rudkin had one daughter, Monie. Upon his death in San Francisco in 1931, the Seattle Daily Times reported:
Judge Rudkin was recognized by members of the bench [and] of [the] bar not only in the Northwest but throughout the nation as one of its leading jurists, and was frequently mentioned as a possible member of the United States Supreme Court. He was considered one of the most democratic members of the Federal Court, tolerant in his views and a keen student of the law.
Selected References
Washington State Bar Association Proceedings (1906), pp. 170-173; N. W. Durham, History of Spokane and the Inland Empire, vol. 2 (1912), pp. 267-268; C. W. Wolfe, Sketches of Washingtonians (1906), p. 273; C. S. Reinhart, History of the Supreme Court of the Territory and State of Washington (n.d.), p. 78.
The preceding biography is from Charles Sheldon's The Washington High Bench: A Biographical History of the State Supreme Court, 1889-1991, © 1992 by the Board of Regents of Washington State University. Reprinted here with permission and licensed to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by The Temple of Justice Project.
