James Gibson (1902 in Salem,

Washington County, New York Washington County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,302. The county seat is Fort Edward. The county was named for U.S. President George Washington. Washington County is part of the Glen ...

– May 29, 1992 in

Glens Falls Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls refe ...

Warren County, New York Warren County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,737. The county seat is Queensbury. The county is named in honor of General Joseph Warren, an American Revolutionary War hero of the Batt ...

) was an American lawyer and politician.

Life

He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1923. Then he studied law privately and attended

Albany Law School Albany Law School is a private law school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 and is the oldest independent law school in the nation. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and has an affiliation agreement with University at Al ...

for one year. He was admitted to the bar in 1926, and practiced law in

Hudson Falls, New York Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill) is a village located in Washington County, New York, United States. The village is in the southwest of the town of Kingsbury, on U.S. Route 4. Hudson Falls is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

. He married Judith Angell, and they had two daughters. In 1935, he was elected District Attorney of Washington County, a position his father had held also. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he served as a captain in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. In 1952, he was elected to the New York Supreme Court (4th District), and re-elected in 1966. He sat on the Appellate Division (3rd Dept.) from 1956 to 1969. He was Presiding Justice from 1964 on. In 1964, the phrase "under God" in the

Pledge of Allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America. The first version, with a text different from the one used ...

was challenged as a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. On the appellate bench, Gibson ruled that the phrase was legal. His decision was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals. The

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

declined to review the decision, effectively leaving Justice Gibson's ruling as the law of the land. On September 15, 1969, Gibson was appointed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller to the Court of Appeals to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of

Kenneth Keating Kenneth Barnard Keating (May 18, 1900 – May 5, 1975) was an American politician, diplomat, and judge who served as a United States Senator representing New York from 1959 until 1965. A member of the Republican Party, he also served in the ...

. In

November 1969 The following events occurred in November 1969: November 1, 1969 (Saturday) *TWA Flight 85 landed safely at Rome's Fiumicino Airport at 5:07 in the morning local time, 18 hours after it had been hijacked during a scheduled flight between two ...

, he was elected unopposed to succeed himself. He retired from the Court of Appeals at the end of 1972 when he reached the constitutional age limit of 70 years, and returned to the Supreme Court as a certificated trial justice until 1978. Afterwards he resumed the practice of law at Hudson Falls. He died at the Glens Falls Hospital.

Sources

''The History of the New York Court of Appeals, 1932-2003''
by Bernard S. Meyer, Burton C. Agata & Seth H. Agata (pages 27f)

Court of Appeals judges

History of the Third Department, with portrait (page 26)
''James Gibson, 90, Former Judge On New York's High Court, Dies''
in NYT on June 1, 1992 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, James Judges of the New York Court of Appeals 1902 births 1992 deaths Princeton University alumni People from Salem, New York New York Supreme Court Justices County district attorneys in New York (state) Albany Law School alumni People from Hudson Falls, New York 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American judges