Legal Research

Who Is That Man on the Wall?

The portrait that hangs behind our reference desk is of Henry E. Ackerson, Jr. (1880-1970), one of the first seven justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court under the 1947 constitution. Ackerson Hall, at 180 University Avenue, the home of our law school from 1965 to 1978, was named in honor of Justice Ackerson.

Judge Ackerson's judicial career began in 1919 when he was appointed as Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals. He served on that Court until 1924, then as a Circuit Court judge until 1948, then on the Supreme Court until his retirement in 1952. According to remarks by Chief Justice Vanderbilt on the occasion of Justice Ackerson's retirement, "more of his opinions below were adopted by [the higher courts] as their decisions than those of any other trial judge in our entire judicial history."

Full post as published by Rutgers Law Library on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).