Lucien Dunbidden Gardner (November 28, 1876 – November 2, 1952) was a justice of the Alabama Supreme Court from 1914 to 1951. He served as chief justice of the

Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...

from 1940 to 1951. Gardner was an alumnus of

Troy State University Troy University is a public university in Troy, Alabama. It was founded in 1887 as Troy State Normal School within the Alabama State University System, and is now the flagship university of the Troy University System. Troy University is accredi ...

and University of Alabama School of Law."Lucien Gardner Dies In Capital", ''The Dothan Eagle'' (November 3, 1952), p. 1. He was elected to the Alabama State Senate in 1906. In 1914, he was appointed to a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court vacated by the elevation of C. J. Anderson to chief justice. Gardner then won election to the remainder of the term, and was reelected as a Justice in 1922, 1928, and 1934. In 1940, Governor

Frank M. Dixon Frank Murray Dixon (July 25, 1892 – October 11, 1965) was an American Democratic politician. He served as the 40th Governor of Alabama from 1939 to 1943 and is most known for reorganizing the state government and reforming the way property t ...

elevated Gardner to Chief Justice, and he won election to that office later in 1940, winning reelection again in 1946. In an

anti-miscegenation Anti-miscegenation laws or miscegenation laws are laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races. Anti-misc ...

case ruling in Alabama, Gardner stated that "It is reprehensible enough for a white man to live in adultery with a white woman thus defying the laws of God and man, but it is more so, and a much lower grade of depravity, for a white man to live in adultery with a Negro woman." During the 1948 presidential election campaign, Gardner's court made a landmark ruling that Alabama's

presidential electors The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

can never be required to vote for any party's national nominee.Key, V.O. junior; ''Southern Politics in State and Nation''; p. 340 This had the effect of excluding both current incumbent President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

and 1964 incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson from ballot access in Alabama. He married Henrietta Wiley of

Troy, Alabama Troy is a city in and the county seat of Pike County, Alabama, United States. It was formally incorporated on February 4, 1843. Between 1763 and 1783, the area where Troy sits was part of the colony of British West Florida.The Economy of Brit ...

. His son, Lucien D. Gardner, Jr., grandson, William F. Gardner, and great-grandson, Robert T. Gardner, also became lawyers. Gardner was a Baptist. Gardner died in a hospital in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, at the age of 76, following a period of ill health, and six months after the death of his wife.

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Digital Archives entry
1876 births 1952 deaths Troy University alumni Alabama state senators Chief justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama University of Alabama School of Law alumni {{Alabama-politician-stub