Harlan Fiske Stone played a significant role in American legal history. Stone served as U.S. attorney general from 1924 to 1925 under President Calvin Coolidge before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1925 by Coolidge. In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt elevated him to chief justice, a position he held until his death.

Stone was born on October 11, 1872 in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. After graduating from Amherst College in 1894, Stone entered Columbia Law School. Upon his graduation and admission to the New York bar in 1898, Stone joined a major corporate law firm in New York City law firm. However, Stone was drawn to teaching and scholarship, which led him back to Columbia in 1920 to join the law faculty. He remained at Columbia for over 20 years, with the last fourteen as dean of the law school. Although he left Columbia in 1923 to return to corporate law practice, his stay was brief. In 1924 he...