Sutherland Institute - George Sutherland

George Sutherland

Sutherland Institute's name is derived from George Sutherland. Sutherland was the first and only Utahn to have served on the US Supreme Court. Sutherland also served as a US Senator prior to being appointed to the bench in 1922.

Sutherland has received criticism from jurists from opposite sides of constitutional interpretational philosophy.

Sutherland was one of the Four Horsemen (Supreme Court). Liberals of his day ridiculed him for opposing all of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs as unconstitutional. Jurists such as Bork, Scalia, and Rehnquist, who ascribe to Originalism have chastised his many Court opinions for grounding his more liberal opinions in the very same logic he used in opposing FDRs New Deal policies.

Hadley Arkes wrote a biography on Justice Sutherland titled: "The Return of George Sutherland." In his book, Hadley noted Sutherland's particular interest in what Hadley calls the "jurisprudence of natural rights."