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County: City of St. Louis
Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: April 1937 – December 1949
Judge James Marsh Douglas was born January 6, 1896, in St. Louis, Missouri.[i] He graduated from Central High School and Washington University Law School in St. Louis.[ii] He was admitted to the bar on July 12, 1917.[iii] In 1921, that he earned his LL.B. law degree.[iv]
From 1921 to 1935, Douglas practiced law in St. Louis.[v] Douglas was a Medical Jurisprudence lecturer at Washington University Medical School from 1929 to 1937.[vi] He also served as city counselor for Florissant from 1933 to 1935.[vii] In November 1934, he was elected as a circuit court judge for the 8th Circuit, No. 6 (City of St. Louis) for a term that began on January 7, 1935,[viii] and expired in 1941.[ix]
On April 3, 1937, Governor Lloyd C. Stark[x] appointed Judge Douglas to the Supreme Court of Missouri to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Judge John Caskie Collet, who was appointed to the United States District Court.[xi] Douglass was 41 years old at the time of his appointment to the Court.[xii] In 1938, Douglas was a part of an intense judicial campaign primary.[xiii] The primary, in which Circuit Judge James V. Billings and Douglas were the judicial candidates, in a “Boss” Pendergast v. Governor Stark battle, has been referred to as “one of the bitterest campaigns for a judicial post in the state’s modern history.”[xiv] It resulted in the adoption of the Non Partisan Court Plan, in 1940.[xv] Judge Douglas won the 1938 primary, was elected to the Court on November 8, 1938, and served until his term concluded in 1944.[xvi]
Through the adoption of the Non Partisan Court Plan, also known as the Missouri Plan, Douglas was retained by the people of the state, and served a ten-year term,[xvii] which ended in 1954.[xviii] Judge Douglas served as Chief Justice from October 10, 1943 to March 16, 1945.[xix] Judge Douglas retired from the Supreme Court of Missouri on December 31, 1949.[xx] After he retired from the Court, he became a partner with the St. Louis firm of Thompson, Mitchell, Thompson & Young.[xxi]
Judge Douglas was a member of numerous legal organizations, including honorary member of the Order of the Coif (Washington University), Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternities, Lawyers Association, American Law Institute, American Judicature Society, American Bar Association, and the St. Louis Bar Association.[xxii] He was National President of Phi Delta Phi from 1931 to 1933.[xxiii]
Judge James Marsh Douglas died on December 3, 1974, in St. Louis.[xxiv]
[i] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), April 14, 1977, 8.
[ii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri), April 14, 1977, 8.
[iii] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years Nineteen Forty-Seven, Nineteen Forty-Eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187. See also: Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri) April 14, 1977, 8.
[iv] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri) April 14, 1977, 8.
[v] St. Louis Post Dispatch Staff, “Judge Douglas to Leave State Supreme Court Bench Dec. 31,” St Louis Post Dispatch, (St. Louis, MO), November 3, 1949.
[vi] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years Nineteen Forty-Seven, Nineteen Forty-Eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[vii] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years Nineteen Forty-Seven, Nineteen Forty-Eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[viii] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years Nineteen Forty-Seven, Nineteen Forty-Eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[ix] St. Louis Post Dispatch Staff, “Judge Douglas to Leave State Supreme Court Bench Dec. 31,” St Louis Post Dispatch, (St. Louis, MO), November 3, 1949. See also: Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Five and Nineteen Thirty-Six, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1936), 143.
[x] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Nine and Nineteen Forty, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1940), 127.
[xi] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri) April 14, 1977, 9.
[xii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri) April 14, 1977, 9.
[xiii] St. Louis Post Dispatch Staff, “Judge Douglas to Leave State Supreme Court Bench Dec. 31,” St Louis Post Dispatch, (St. Louis, MO), November 3, 1949.
[xiv] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri) April 14, 1977, 9.
[xv] Missouri General Assembly, Laws of Missouri, Passed at the Session of the Sixty-first General Assembly, (Jefferson City, MO: Dwight H. Brown, secretary of state, 1941), 722, information courtesy of Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed June 19, 2019, available from http://cdm16795.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/molaws/id/28874/rec/67
[xvi] Dwight H. Brown, Secretary of State, Dwight H. Brown, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual, for Years Nineteen Thirty-Nine and Nineteen Forty, (Jefferson City, MO: Midland Printing Company, 1940), 127.
[xvii] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual State of Missouri, 1947-1948, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[xviii] Supreme Court of Missouri, Proceedings on the Presentation of Portraits of the Honorable James M. Douglas and the Honorable Clem F. Storckman (Jefferson City, MO: Supreme Court of Missouri) April 14, 1977, 9.
[xix] St. Louis Daily Record Staff, “Portraits of Former Justices Douglas and Storckman to be Presented April 14 In Division One,” St. Louis Daily Record, (St. Louis, Missouri), April 7, 1977.
[xx] St. Louis Post Dispatch Staff, “Judge Douglas to Leave State Supreme Court Bench Dec. 31,” St Louis Post Dispatch, (St. Louis, MO), November 3, 1949. See also: Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., State of Missouri, Official Manual for the Years Nineteen Forty-Seven, Nineteen Forty-Eight, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[xxi] St. Louis Post Dispatch Staff, “Judge Douglas to Leave State Supreme Court Bench Dec. 31,” St Louis Post Dispatch, (St. Louis, MO), November 3, 1949. See also: St. Louis Daily Record, Portraits of Former Justices Douglas and Storckman to be Presented April 14 In Division One (St. Louis, MO: St. Louis Daily Record) April 7, 1977.
[xxii] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual State of Missouri, 1947-1948, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[xxiii] Edgar C. Nelson, Secretary of State, Esther Downs Bishop, ed., Official Manual State of Missouri, 1947-1948, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1948), 187.
[xxiv] Wilson Bell, Secretary of State, Wilson Bell, publisher, State of Missouri, Official Manual for Years, Nineteen Forty-Five, Nineteen Forty-Six, (Jefferson City, MO: Mid-State Printing Company, 1946), 199.
Biographical information authored by Ms. Anna Theroff, 2019, Washington University-St. Louis.