William Burnham Woods

William Burnham Woods (August 3, 1824 – May 14, 1887) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. An appointee of President Rutherford B. Hayes, he served from 1881 until 1887. He wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Harris, involving the constitutionality of the Ku Klux Klan Act, and Presser v. Illinois, involving the application of the Second Amendment to the states; both cases adopted a narrow interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. He dissented rarely and wrote mostly uncontroversial opinions.

Born in Newark, Ohio, Woods received his degree from Yale University. He practiced law in Newark and entered politics, soon rising to be the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. A Democrat, he initially opposed the Lincoln administration's policies but supported the Union once the Civil War broke out. He joined the Union army as an officer, participating in a number of battles; after his discharge as a brevet major general in 1866, he settled in Alabama, where he practiced law and engaged in commercial activities. In 1868, he was elected to an Alabama state court on the Republican ticket.

In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Woods a circuit judge for the Fifth Circuit, which covered six Southern states. In the Slaughter-House Cases and United States v. Cruikshank, he favored a broad interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment that contrasted with the narrower one he supported on the Supreme Court. In another case, he upheld "separate but equal" schools. Hayes nominated Woods to the Supreme Court in 1880, and he was confirmed by the Senate 39–8. On the Court, he was a diligent worker who wrote more opinions than any other associate justice during his six-year tenure. He was struck ill in spring 1886 and died in 1887.