John B. Winslow

Winslow was born in Nunda, New York.[1] He moved with his parents to Racine, Wisconsin, in 1855.[1] Winslow graduated from Racine College in 1871 and began studying law at the offices of E. O. Hand. He continued his study at the law office of Fuller & Dyer.[2] In September 1874, he entered the University of Wisconsin Law School and graduated with his law degree in 1875.[1] After graduating from law school, he returned to Racine and established a successful legal practice.[3]

For many years, Winslow was a law partner with Joseph V. Quarles, who had been Mayor of Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1876–1877, and would later become a U.S. senator and federal judge. Winslow also served as Racine City Attorney from 1879 until 1883.[4]

In 1883, Winslow challenged incumbent Wisconsin circuit court judge John T. Wentworth. Winslow narrowly defeated Wentworth in the April election and assumed office in January 1884 as judge of the 1st circuit. At the time, the 1st circuit comprised the counties of Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth.[5] He was subsequently re-elected without opposition in 1889.

In May 1891, following the death of Justice David Taylor, Governor George Wilbur Peck appointed Judge Winslow to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[6] He was unopposed when, in April 1892, he was elected to fill the remainder of Taylor's term. He was elected to a full term on the court in 1895, defeating a challenge from 5th circuit Judge George Clementson, and was subsequently re-elected without opposition in 1905 and 1915.

Following the death of Chief Justice John B. Cassoday, on December 30, 1907, as the next most senior member of the court, Justice Winslow became the 10th Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[7][4] He served as Chief Justice until his death in July 1920.

Winslow and his fellow justice Roujet D. Marshall engaged in a continuing debate over the proper interpretation of the federal and state constitutions in light of changing social needs.  Marshall argued that "preservation of liberty is given precedent [even] over the establishment of government" and that courts must ensure that reform laws did not infringe it.  A reform law, he said, cannot "be conclusively legitimate merely because it promotes, however trifling in degree, public health, comfort, or convenience."[16] Winslow and Marshall continued their debate in a series of cases in which Winslow’s philosophy ultimately prevailed:

• In Borgnis v. Falk Co. (1911), the Supreme Court upheld Wisconsin's new workers compensation law over objections that it violated employers’ liberty and property rights by forcing them to pay benefits even where they were not at fault.  Winslow argued that constitutions must be interpreted flexibly in order to meet changing social conditions: "When an eighteenth century constitution forms the charter of liberty of a twentieth century government must its general provisions be construed and interpreted by an eighteenth century mind in the light of eighteenth century conditions and ideals?  Clearly not. This were to command the race to halt in its progress, to stretch the state upon a veritable bed of Procrustes."[17]
• Marshall agreed that the workers compensation law was unconstitutional but he disagreed with Winslow’s philosophy:  "If the constitution is to efficiently endure, the idea that it is capable of being re-squared, from time to time, to fit new legislative or judicial notions of necessities ... must be combated whenever and wherever advanced."[18]
• In the Forestry Case (1915) , the Court struck down a law that authorized the state to spend money to acquire land in northern Wisconsin, once the site of a huge white-pine forest that had been cut down by loggers during the nineteenth century, and turn it back into forest. Marshall held that the law violated a clause in Wisconsin’s constitution that prohibited state financing of "works of internal improvement," and he argued that the law impermissibly interfered with private property and liberty rights.  Winslow believed the law was invalid because of technical defects but he disagreed with Marshall that reforestation was an "internal improvement," and affirmed that land conservation was a matter of public welfare that the state could undertake.[19]
• In 1911 Wisconsin Progressives enacted a law creating an Industrial Commission and giving it comprehensive power to regulate workplace conditions affecting safety.  The law was the first in the nation to create an agency with such broad powers.  In State v. Lange Canning Co. (1916), the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the law directing the agency to establish maximum working hours for women; it reasoned that the legislature had impermissibly delegated its policymaking powers to unelected agency officials.  Winslow dissented, and when the state asked for a rehearing he was able to persuade his colleagues to change their minds.  They now upheld the law, agreeing with Winslow that the legislature had set policy by requiring that workplaces be safe, and that when the Commission set women’s working hours it was merely making a determination of fact as to what hours best promoted safety.[20]

Marshall was defeated for reelection in 1917 largely because his decision in the Forestry Case was unpopular.  By the time Winslow died in 1920, his philosophy of flexible constitutionalism and adaptation to modern conditions was generally accepted in Wisconsin.  Several years later Walter C. Owen, the justice who replaced Marshall, stated for the Supreme Court that "It is thoroughly established in this country that the rights preserved to the individual by … constitutional provisions are held in subordination to the rights of society."[21]

John B. Winslow was the only son of Horatio G. Winslow and Emily Winslow (née Bradley).[1] He was a direct descendant of Kenelm Winslow, brother of Edward Winslow, a Mayflower colonist and a governor of Plymouth Colony.[1]

John B. Winslow married Agnes Clancy on January 19, 1881. They had two sons and four daughters.[4] Their former home in Madison, Wisconsin, is located in what is now the Langdon Street Historic District.[1] Judge Winslow died at this home in Madison on July 13, 1920, after a protracted illness.[2]

• Winslow, John Bradley (1912). The Story of a Great Court. Chicago: T. H. Flood & Company.

• Works by or about John B. Winslow at Internet Archive
• Judge John Bradley Winslow at Find a Grave