Grier, Robert C. (1794–1870)

• Author: Kermit L. Hall
• Pages: 1229-1230

Page 1229

The SENATE on August 4, 1846, unanimously confirmed Robert Cooper Grier as the thirty-third Justice of the Supreme Court. President JAMES K. POLK nominated Grier because of his STATES ' RIGHTS Democratic principles, his position on the FUGITIVE SLAVERY issue, and his familiarity through thirteen years of previous judicial experience with Pennsylvania's unique law of real property. The bar of Pennsylvania thought the last of these particularly important since Grier's duties included presiding over the Third Circuit which included Pennsylvania.

Grier embraced the concept of dual SOVEREIGNTY. He believed that the inherent state police powers included

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the power to curb the flow of liquor for purposes of public health and morality. (See LICENSE CASES.) Yet Grier also believed that the states could not interfere in areas of responsibility granted by the COMMERCE CLAUSE to the Congress. Thus, he sided with the narrow majority in the PASSENGER CASES (1849) in striking down taxes levied by two states on ship masters bringing immigrants to the United States.

Grier contributed significantly to the constitutional law of CORPORATIONS and PATENTS. He formulated an important legal fiction in Marshall v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (1853) by holding that for purposes of establishing federal JURISDICTION federal judges could assume that corporate officers resided in the state of incorporation. The decision aided litigants seeking access to federal courts and prevented a corporation from electing officers in the state of a complaining party in order to avoid a suit in federal court.

Because of his experience with patent litigation in the Third Circuit, Grier spoke for the Court in several important patent cases. He wrote the opinions in Seymour v. McCormick (1854) and McCormick v. Talbot (1858), which involved the exclusivity of Cyrus McCormick's patent on the reaper. In the 1864 case of Burr v. Duryee, the most important patent decision to that time, Grier, writing for the Court, held that the patent clause protected inventors of machinery but did not extend to scientific principles. The decision guaranteed accessibility to technical information in a rapidly expanding economy while protecting manufacturers in recovering the costs of developing new machinery.

Grier staunchly enforced the fugitive slave acts. He regularly charged circuit court juries to find for the rights of masters, even when it meant a hostile...