Justice John Stanley Webster | Temple of Justice

Born: Thursday, February 22nd, 1877

Died: Monday, December 24th, 1962

Birthplace: Cynthiana, Kentucky

Religion: Christian Disciples

Education: University of Michigan School of Law, LL.B. (1899)

Career: Prosecuting Attorney (1902-1907; 1907-1909)
    Superior Court (1909-1916)
    U.S. House of Representatives (1919-1923)
    Federal District Court (1923-1939)

Served: Monday, November 20th, 1916 to Saturday, May 11th, 1918

Political Party: Republican

Appointing Governor: Lister (Democrat)

John Stanley Webster was born in northern Kentucky about fifty miles from the Ohio border. His father, John Bascom Webster, fought on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War, but his mother, Lucinda Landrum (Anderson), had been sympathetic toward the Union. Thus the family avoided political discussions. Webster had two sisters and a brother. He attended public schools and then Smith’s Classical School for Boys before entering the University of Michigan School of Law in 1897. Upon graduation in 1899 he returned to Cynthiana, Kentucky, to practice law.

In 1902, at the age of twenty-five, voters elected Webster to a four-year term as prosecuting attorney of Harrison County, Kentucky. His relentless prosecution of feuding families in the region drained his health, prompting his move to a stump farm near Spokane. While at the University of Michigan, Fred C. Pugh, later prosecuting attorney for Spokane County, became a close friend. Upon learning of Webster’s move to the region, Pugh persuaded him to serve as his deputy. Webster spent the next two years as Pugh’s chief trial lawyer and developed a reputation for hard work and tough prosecutions. Within two years-on September 12, 1908 – he gained appointment as superior court judge at the age of thirty-one, the youngest judge then on the Washington bench. That year he married Gertrude Lathrum of Spokane. They had no children.

Webster served on the superior court bench for eight years, resigning to run for the supreme court vacancy created by Judge Frederick Bausman’s resignation in 1916. He swamped his single opponent in the September primary and ran unopposed on the November ballot.

Bausman had announced in July that he would resign immediately after the September primary, allowing Governor Ernest Lister to “appoint the high man as [his] successor, taking for granted … that the high man would … be perfectly agreeable to the governor.” Some confusion existed as to exactly when Webster would assume his seat as a result of his November victory. A 1911 law mandated that a successful supreme court candidate “shall not qualify until the second Monday in January, succeeding his election.” At the same time, Article IV, Section 3 of Washington’s constitution simply stated that judges serve out their terms until the “election and qualification” of their successors. This constitutional provision meant that Webster could assume his place on the bench thirty days after the November balloting, when official election results were certified. Attorney General W. V. Tanner advised the governor that the constitutional version prevailed and Webster could take office by December. Rather than selecting someone else to serve only three weeks, Lister appointed Webster.

Webster served from November 20, 1916 until May 11, 1918. He resigned to conduct a successful congressional campaign, unseating eastern Washington incumbent C. C. Dill by more than 2,000 votes. Some question arose over his eligibility for a congressional seat. Article IV, Section 15 of the Washington constitution stated that judges are ineligible for “any other office or public employment” during the term for which they were elected. Judge W. W. Black had been disqualified for nomination as a gubernatorial candidate in 1912 because of the provision. However, Webster’s defenders correctly pointed out that that section of the constitution could apply only to other state offices and not to federal positions.

Webster won election to two subsequent terms in the U. S. House of Representatives. He resigned on May 8, 1923 to accept an appointment to the federal district bench when President Warren Harding elevated Frank Rudkin to the U. S. Court of Appeals. At the age of forty-six, J. Stanley Webster had returned to that area of public service which he most enjoyed. In a 1923 letter to Senator James Hamilton Lewis, Webster wrote:

I found myself constantly yearning to get back to the wool sack, where definite questions are presented for consideration; where definite rules and processes are available in their solution; where politics and expediency are laid aside, and one’s efforts are directed solely to making the award to him whose cause is just. Moreover, the independence prevailing in the Federal Judiciary is especially gratifying to me, for after all, the sole end of the courts as tribunals of justice is the enforcement of the law, uniformly and impartially, without regard to persons or places or the opinions of men.

Webster had other opportunities for government service. Some suggested him as a possible candidate for the U. S. Supreme Court as well as for the U. S. Court of Appeals. In 1927 supporters made a serious attempt to persuade Webster to seek the Republican nomination for governor. The judge would have none of it. In a letter to his old congressional colleague, Representative Clarence F. Lea, Webster made it clear that he had no desire to return to politics:

I regretted to give up my friends in Washington, but my inclination always has been toward judicial work. The harassments and annoyances of politics wear me out, and I was anxious to be into a new field and under a new environment.

On August 24, 1939, Webster resigned from the federal bench for health reasons. However, he remained active in private and public endeavors. He served as president of the Western International Baseball League in 1940-1941 and enjoyed his hobby of breeding and showing championship Boston terriers. He returned shortly to the federal bench to serve on an interim basis until Chief Justice Samuel Driver of the state supreme court gained confirmation to the federal district bench.

While serving on the state trial bench, Webster was instrumental in recruiting a faculty for the newly organized Gonzaga Law School, and school officials persuaded him to teach a course for the first two years of the school’s existence. With much justification, Judge Webster could be regarded as the “father” of Gonzaga Law School.

While on the supreme court, Webster displayed an eloquent but terse opinion writing style and seldom dissented. An old friend, Benjamin H. Kizer of Spokane, described Webster’s style:

Though he was engaged in the private practice of the law only until he was 25, a period of barely 3 years, Judge Webster’s whole nature and his life were wrapped up in the law. He had a photographic memory. Lawyers practicing before him were repeatedly amazed, often dismayed by his ability, at the close of a long trial, to have him quote verbatim critical testimony of witnesses. After a single reading of an important case, he could quote from memory passages from the opinion that, in his view, were of prime importance. This natural endowment was increased by his intense nature, his ability to give the closest attention to all that went on in the courtroom. This intensity of nature was part of his fiery temperament, as a true Kentuckian.

Essentially, Judge Webster was an idealist about his work as a jurist. As he grew older in judicial work, he tended more and more to withdraw from social life, so that no man could say that he was influenced by friendship. He gave his whole life to the duties of a jurist, and all the ardor of his nature was expended in matching up to that ideal of strict impartiality.

Kizer provided further insights into the character of John Stanley Webster:

He had an unequalled gift of eloquence that never smelled of the lamp. It flowed from him, seemingly, as spontaneously, as fluently as common-places do from less gifted mortals. Those listening to him for the first time were generally carried away by his remarkable gift of utterance. In addition he had the voice, the presence, the bearing of a great man. Nor was there anything shallow or insincere about that eloquence. On the contrary, it was evident that his eloquence was the product of a first-rate fast-travelling mind that was continuously active.

He was no less fascinating in private conversation. He was the prince of storytellers, and there seemed no limit to their number, their variety, their originality and their charm, enriched by a play of wit and humor that were unforgettable. Thus, whether men listened to him on the platform, in the courtroom or in private converse, the listener was sure to be deeply impressed by this highly gifted, deeply attractive personality.

Washington Supreme Court Justice Frank P. Weaver recalled arguing a case before Judge Webster when he presided over the federal bench in Spokane:

His lightning-like mind encompassed an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the facts, and the controlling questions of law involved, with a rapidity that confounded counsel.

I soon learned, when examining a witness, to keep one eye on the witness and the other eye on Judge Webster. He had two unconscious characteristics: one he would tap a finger-the other-he would rock in his chair.

Counsel was not in trouble the moment either of these two things happened; but he was on the brink. They were danger signals that counsel was, in the court’s opinion, wasting time.

The situation then posed a problem for counsel: it called for a delicate balance between keeping the judge happy and getting the jury informed.

A case tried before Judge Webster met the highest standards ever devised for the administration of justice.

His precise and eloquent command of the English language-after all, he was from Kentucky-made his instructions to the jury, not only an epitome of law and justice, but a composition of literary beauty.

Selected References

Webster papers, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Library; memorial services, Washington Reports, vol. 52, 2d (1963), pp. xvi-xxiv; Congressional Record, vol. 109 (28 Jan. 1963), p. 1003; Spokane Spokesman-Review, 20 Aug. 1939 and 21 Aug. 1939.

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.