James M. Douglas was a Missouri Supreme Court judge.
His judicial career was highlighted by his 1938 election over an
opponent backed by a corrupt political machine. This victory led to a
change in how Missouri chooses its judges. The new method, commonly
known as the Missouri Plan, has been copied by thirty other states.
During his time on the bench Judge Douglas also wrote important opinions
on expanding the rights of women teachers and ending a political fight
that made way for Forrest Donnell to take office as Missouri’s governor
in 1941.
James Marsh Douglas was born in St. Louis on January 6,
1896. He was one five children born to
Walter Bond Douglas(1), a St. Louis
Circuit judge, and Francesca Kimball Douglas. He attended St. Louis
public schools and graduated from Central High School in 1914. He then
enrolled in the Washington University Law School at a time when students
could earn an undergraduate law degree. However, he soon left to join
the Missouri National Guard. Initially, Douglas served on the Mexican
border in 1916, but after America’s entry into World War I, he was
commissioned as second lieutenant in the U.S. Field Artillery, and
entered combat in France and Germany.
At the war’s end Douglas
returned to Washington University, earning his bachelor’s degree in law
in 1921. He soon after joined the firm of Nagel and Kirby, where he
practiced for fourteen years. In 1935 he was elected to the St. Louis
Circuit Court as a Democrat. During this time, he lectured at the
Washington University Medical College on medical jurisprudence. He
served from 1931 to 1933 as national president of the legal fraternity
Phi Delta Phi. In 1937 Governor Lloyd Stark appointed Douglas to the
Missouri Supreme Court.
Douglas was only 41 when Governor Stark
appointed him to the High Court, leading the press to refer to him as
the Court’s “baby member.” He was also the only member from St. Louis.
When Douglas arrived in Jefferson City, the Supreme Court was in the
midst of a complex and controversial insurance case. The judges were
evenly split 3-3. After joining the court, Douglas cast the deciding
vote against the insurance companies. The companies in their legal
struggles had been secretly helped by an influential Kansas City
political boss named Thomas J. Pendergast. Pendergast led a powerful
“machine” whose members helped him control Kansas City government, and,
for a time, Missouri state government as well. Since Pendergast had a
personal financial stake in the court’s decision, when Douglas voted
against the insurance companies, he became an enemy of the machine and a
target for Pendergast.
Douglas’s appointment to the court
occurred late in the term and after serving only one year he was, by
law, up for election. Pendergast took this opportunity to take revenge
on both Douglas and Governor Stark, feeling the governor had betrayed
his earlier political support. Pendergast recruited a judge from
southeast Missouri, James V. Billings, to oppose Douglas in the
election.
Although the candidates formally competing against each
other were Billings and Douglas, it soon became clear that these two men
had become surrogates in a political struggle between the governor and
the boss. The political machine campaigned ferociously against Douglas,
and Governor Stark campaigned just as ruthlessly against Billings. On
election day, Douglas defeated Billings. Douglas’s victory marked the
beginning of the downfall of boss control in Kansas City and, to a
degree, St. Louis as well. Pendergast’s failure to purge Douglas from
the Supreme Court helped lead to the new method of selecting judges
based on merit rather than politics. This nonpartisan court plan has
been widely imitated across the United States.
Following his
election, Douglas earned a reputation as an excellent jurist and served
as chief justice from 1943 to 1945. He wrote two particularly notable
opinions during his twelve years on the Court. In 1940 Republican
Forrest C. Donnell was elected governor, but the Democrats in the House
of Representatives refused to legally recognize his victory, as required
by law. They successfully kept Donnell from being governor for six
weeks. The Supreme Court ruled that the House’s action was
unconstitutional. A second case concerned the employment of women as
teachers. In 1947 two women sued the St. Louis Board of Education
because it forbade married women from teaching in St. Louis’s public
schools. When the case reached the high court, Douglas wrote a unanimous
opinion striking down the discriminatory rule.
In 1939 Douglas
married Mary Elizabeth Lumaghi, with whom he had a son, James Kimball
Douglas, three years later.
Douglas resigned from the Supreme
Court on December 31, 1949, and returned to St. Louis to become a
partner in the firm Thompson, Mitchell, Thompson & Douglas. His court
service was acknowledged in 1950 when the University of Missouri Alumni
Association honored him with a citation of merit “for outstanding
achievement and meritorious service in law.” In 1951 Douglas received
the annual award of the Lawyers Association of St. Louis, Missouri.
Douglas also had extensive civic involvement beyond his legal
profession. His activities included being a member of the United States
Territorial Commission, which was in charge of erecting the St. Louis
riverfront memorial, later popularly known as “The Gateway Arch.” He was
also chairman of the task force on legal services and procedures of the
“Little Hoover” Commission, a Missouri government reorganization task
force. In addition, Douglas served as president of the Missouri
Historical Society from 1940 to 1945.
Douglas died in St. Louis
on December 3, 1974, and was buried in Saint Ferdinand Cemetery in
Hazelwood, Missouri
See also:
•
James Marsh Douglas, died 1790
Notes:
1. Walter B.
Douglas was a judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, 1901-1906, and
president of the Missouri Historical Society, 1893-1894. His father was
James Marsh Douglas, a druggist in Brunswick, Missouri (1850) |
