The New International Encyclopædia/Cooley, Thomas McIntyre

COOLEY, (1824-98). An American jurist and writer on constitutional law. He was born in Attica, N. Y., but removed to Michigan in 1843, and in 1846 was admitted to the bar. He compiled the general statutes of the State, was reporter for the Supreme Court (1858-64), and published eight volumes of reports and a digest of the Michigan decisions. He was professor in the law department of the University of Michigan and dean of the faculty in 1859. In 1861 he became professor of constitutional and administrative law in the school of political science in the university, and also dean, and later occupied the chair of American history in the academic department. From 1864 to 1885 he was a justice of the State Supreme Court, and was Chief Justice from 1868 to 1869. In 1887 he became chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, but resigned four years later. Judge Cooley's publications on constitutional law, which are authoritative, are: The Constitutional Limitations which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union (1868); Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, with Additional Commentaries on the New Amendments (1873); and General Principles of Constitutional Law in the United States (1880).