William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft is the only person in American history to serve as both President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court — and by most accounts, he liked the second job far better. "I don't remember that I ever was president," he told a friend after joining the Court in 1921. The presidency had been thrust upon him by Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted a loyal successor; the Chief Justiceship was what Taft had always wanted, and he served it with a clarity of purpose his four years in the White House never quite achieved.

As president from 1909 to 1913, Taft's record was more progressive than his reputation suggests — he filed more antitrust suits than Roosevelt, supported the Sixteenth Amendment establishing the income tax, and expanded the civil service. But he lacked Roosevelt's theatrical command of public attention, and his decision to side with conservative Republicans over Progressive insurgents cost him the party. Roosevelt challenged him in 1912; the resulting split handed the election to Woodrow Wilson.

As Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930, Taft reshaped the federal judiciary. He lobbied Congress for the building that became the Supreme Court's permanent home, reorganized the court system, and proved a skilled administrator of the institution he revered. He died in 1930, just weeks after retiring — as if the job had been the thing keeping him alive. He remains the heaviest president in American history, a fact he acknowledged with characteristic self-deprecating humor.