George Joel Sutherland (March 25, 1862 - July 18, 1942) was an English-born U.S. jurist and political figure. One of four appointments to the Supreme Court by President Warren G. Harding, he served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court between 1922 and 1938. Born in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, Sutherland immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1863 to join the community of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Springville, Utah. Sutherland attended the University of Michigan law school, and was admitted to the Utah bar in 1883. He was known for his representation of railroads.
He served as a Congressman from Utah during the 57th Congress (1901 - 1903). Sutherland was a U.S. Senator representing Utah from 1905 to 1917. He was a Republican. Sutherland had left the Latter-day Saints church and became Presbyterian disputing policies of the Mormons, and his political career was probably stunted in Utah as a result of his no longer being a Mormon. Utah history books rarely mentioned him, prior to 1985.
Sutherland was also President of the American Bar Association from 1916 - 1917.
During Franklin Roosevelt's early years in office, Justice Sutherland along with James Clark McReynolds, Pierce Butler and Willis Van Devanter was part of the conservative Four Horsemen who were instrumental in striking down New Deal legislation. Important decisions he authored include the 1932 case Powell vs. Alabama, overturning a conviction in the Scottsboro Boys Case because the defendant, Ozie Powell, was deprived of his right to counsel, and Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. v. U.S.
He was also the last Supreme Court justice to have a full beard. While several other justices have sported minor facial hair (mustaches on Justices Marshall and Thomas, sideburns on Chief Justice Rehnquist), Justice Sutherland's face was covered in a thick, bushy white beard.
