Stephen Johnson Field (November 4, 1816 – April 9, 1899) was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1863 to 1897, and prior to that, he was the fifth Chief Justice of California. He had the third-longest tenure of any justice and is the only justice who served contemporaneously with one of their relatives, his nephew, David J. Brewer.
Stephen Johnson Field
Supreme Court of the United States
Born 1816 in Haddam, CT
Died 1899 in Washington, DC
FJC ID: 751
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 14/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 142/year
California Supreme Court · 1857–1863Supreme Court of the United States · 1863–1897
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Supreme Court of CaliforniaJustice · 1857–1863
- ↳chief justice · 1859–1863
- Private practice, Marysville, California1850–1857
State assemblyman · 1850–1851- Private practice, San Francisco, California1850
- Marysville, CaliforniaAlcalde · 1850
- Private practice, New York City1841–1848
Appointments
1863–1897 · Appointed by Abraham Lincoln (Republican)Term ended: Retirement
1857–1863
Education
- Read law1841
- Williams CollegeB.A. · 1837
- Williams CollegeB.A. · 1837