Justice James A. Emmert
(Seventy-ninth Justice)

Justice Emmert was born September 26, 1895, in Laurel, Indiana, and died April 14, 1974, in Shelbyville, Indiana.¹⁹³

He was a graduate of the Clarksburg (Indiana) High School and the Tennessee Military Institute.¹⁹⁴ He received an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.¹⁹⁵ “United States Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter [said] that Judge Emmert was the best research student he ever had at Harvard.”¹⁹⁶

He began his first law practice in Shelbyville, Indiana in 1923.¹⁹⁷ In 1925, he was elected mayor of Shelbyville.¹⁹⁸ Then, in 1928, while serving as mayor, he was elected judge of Shelby Circuit Court and was subsequently re-elected in 1934.¹⁹⁹ In 1940, he was a candidate for governor of Indiana, but he lost the nomination.²⁰⁰ He was elected Indiana Attorney General in 1942 and was reelected in 1944.²⁰¹ In 1946, he was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court where he served until January 5, 1959.²⁰² Justice Emmert served as chief justice for several six month rotation periods, which was the practice of the time.²⁰³ Then, toward the end of his service on the bench, he was elected by the court to serve a one year term as chief justice.²⁰⁴

In addition to his legal accomplishments, he was a World War I Army veteran, having served twenty-two months at a British general hospital in France.²⁰⁵

Known for his eccentricity, he set up housekeeping in his Indiana State House chambers in order to avoid traveling to Shelbyville.²⁰⁶ He had a sofa-bed installed, and prepared his meals on a hot-plate.²⁰⁷

Source: Browning, Minde C., Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt. "Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices." Indiana Law Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, 1997. View this source in PDF format.