David Davis (9 March 1815 – 26 June 1886) was a Republican Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 10 December 1862 to 4 March 1877 (succeeding John Archibald Campbell and preceding John Marshall Harlan) and an Independent US Senator from Illinois from 4 March 1877 to 4 March 1883 (succeeding John A. Logan and preceding Shelby Cullom).
Biography[]
David Davis was born in Cecil County, Maryland, and he became a lawyer in Bloomington, Illinois in 1835. He served in the state house in 1845, and he served as a circuit court judge from 1848 to 1862, joining the Republican Party after being a Whig. He was appointed to the US Supreme Court by President Abraham Lincoln, and, in 1866, he set aside the death sentence imposed on the insurrectionist civilian Lambdin P. Milligan, holding that the trial of a civilian by a military tribunal was unconstitutional. He joined the Liberal Republican Party in 1870, but failed to win the party's 1872 presidential nomination and became an independent. In the aftermath of the disputed 1876 presidential election, Davis was a swing vote on the Supreme Court when it came to deciding whether Republican Rutherford B. Hayes or Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the election. The Democrats of Illinois attempted to purchase Davis' support by nominating him to the US Senate, but, rather than staying on the Supreme Court and voting Democratic, Davis promptly resigned to serve in the Senate. Republican Joseph Philo Bradley replaced him on the election commission, leading to Hayes being awarded the presidency. Davis retired in 1882 and died in Bloomington in 1886.