John F. Davis (lawyer)

John F. Davis (July 11, 1907 – July 18, 2000) was an American lawyer, law clerk, and law professor whose career included ten years of service as Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Early life, Education, and Family

A native of Maine, Davis was born on July 11, 1907 in Portland. He attended the public schools in Portland, graduating from high school in 1924.

Davis attended Bates College, graduating in 1928, and Harvard Law School, from which he obtained his law degree in 1932.^[1]

Davis was married twice. His first wife was Valre Davis, who died in 1978. He later married Jane Mason Davis. He had two children, a son named Marcus and a daughter named Susan.

Career

As a lawyer

Prior to World War II, Davis spent several years as a government attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Department of the Interior.

During the war, he worked as counsel for the United States Coast Guard.

Following World War II, Davis spent several years as a lawyer in private practice in Washington, DC. He was a partner in the law firm of Hilmer & Davis at 1700 I Street NW^[2]

He is best remembered as one of the defense attorneys who represented accused Soviet espionage agent Alger Hiss before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1948 and at Hiss's two 1949-50 trials for perjury in the Southern District of New York.

During the 1950s, as an assistant Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, Davis argued more than 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including the government's antitrust case against the DuPont Company.

As Clerk of the Supreme Court

In 1961, Davis was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, succeeding James R. Browning, who had been appointed to a federal judgeship by President Kennedy. As Clerk, Davis was responsible for maintaining the Court's docket and files. He also administered the oath of office to several new Justices, including Thurgood Marshall, the Court's first African American member, and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.

Davis served as Clerk of the Supreme Court until 1970, when he returned to private practice in Washington, also serving during the 1970s as a Special Master for the Supreme Court in two cases within the Court's original jurisdiction and co-authoring a law review article on the precedential effect of Supreme Court opinions approved by only a plurality (as opposed to a majority) of the Justices.

As a law professor

Davis also taught during the 1970s as a law professor at Georgetown University and later at the University of Maryland School of Law. He retired from the latter position in 1988.

Death

Davis died in 2000, exactly one week after his 93rd birthday. His survivors were: his wife Jane Mason Davis, son Marcus and daughter Susan, stepchildren Clint and Timothy Keeney Jr., five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.^[1]

Lawyer, professor, and biographer G. Edward White is a son-in-law.^[3]

See also

• Alger Hiss
• Earl Warren

References

External sources

• Statement on Davis's retirement as Clerk by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, 398 U.S. vii (1970).
• Oscar H. Davis et al., "Tributes to Professor John F. Davis", 47 Md. L. Rev. 613 (Spring 1988).