Chief Justice William H. Taft Gives a Federal Judge Good Advice on How to Avoid Conflicts of Interest

Jacob Trieber was the first Jew to serve as a federal judge in the United States, receiving his appointment from President McKinley. Serving from 1900 to 1927 as judge for the U.S. Circuit Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, he issued nationally important rulings on controversies that included antitrust cases (it was he who originally upheld the constitutionality of the Clayton Act), railroad litigation, prohibition cases, and mail fraud; some of his rulings, such as those regarding civil rights and wildlife conservation, were landmark decisions that have implications today. His broad, pro-civil rights  interpretation of the constitutional guarantees of the Thirteenth Amendment, originally overturned by the post-Reconstruction U.S. Supreme Court, was validated sixty-five years later in a landmark 1968 equal opportunity case. Trieber was often called upon to sit on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals when that court’s workload became heavy and an additional judge was needed. He heard over 350 Appeals Court cases and wrote the opinions for many of them. He was a particular favorite of Chief Justice William H. Taft, who engaged in a substantial correspondence with him, and who asked him to take on a number of significant projects.

Typed letter signed, on his Supreme Court letterhead, Washington, February 25, 1923, to Trieber, giving him some good advice on how to avoid conflicts of interest. “I have often thought of the embarrassment which you state to me. I mean to try to put in some exception in that canon which will fit your case, if I can devise one. I suggest not that you resign or that your son move elsewhere, but that he be a little chary of appearing before you. Let his partners attend to the United States Court business. This may be a little inconvenient, but it will save him and save you from criticism. There have been cases in the courts where a son has practiced before a father to such an extent as to cause a good deal of feeling. There was such a case in the Admiralty Court in Norfork, and another case up in Spokane, I think it was. I shall talk over the matter more thoroughly with my colleagues on the committee. I am glad to hear from you. I hope you will write to me often whenever I can be of any assistance.”