Edward McTiernan - High Court

High Court

As a judge of the High Court, McTiernan oversaw several of the most significant cases in Australian legal history, including Bank of New South Wales v Commonwealth, which struck down an attempt to nationalise the banks, Australian Communist Party v The Commonwealth, which struck down an attempt to ban the Communist Party of Australia and R v Kirby; ex parte Boilermakers' Society of Australia, which reinforced the doctrine of the separation of powers. He served under five Chief Justices - Sir Isaac Isaacs, Sir Frank Gavan Duffy, Sir John Latham, Sir Owen Dixon and Sir Garfield Barwick, and was knighted himself in 1951.

McTiernan was one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the Court; the others were Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs, H. B. Higgins, John Latham, Garfield Barwick, and Lionel Murphy. He was also one of six justices to have served in the Parliament of New South Wales, along with Barton, O'Connor, Albert Piddington, Adrian Knox and H. V. Evatt.

In total, McTiernan was a member of the High Court for 46 years, making him the longest-serving judge in its history. This is a record not now likely to be broken, as constitutional changes in 1977, perhaps sparked by McTiernan's extremely long term, introduced compulsory retirement ages for judges. McTiernan had no intention of resigning from the bench even into the 1970s, but after breaking his hip at the age of 84 in 1976 whilst chasing a cricket in his hotel with a rolled up newspaper, Chief Justice Barwick's refusal to install a wheelchair ramp to allow him to return to the bench prompted his retirement. He died in 1990, at the age of 97.