{{Short description|American judge (1837–1914)}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Henry Brannon.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1837|11|26}} | birth_place = Winchester, Virginia | death_date = {{death date and age|1914|11|24|1837|11|26}} | death_place = Weston, Virginia | office = Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals | predecessor = Okey Johnson | successor = Charles W. Lynch | term_start = January 1889 | term_end = December 1912 | party = {{plainlist| * Democratic (before 1900) * Republican (1900–1914) }} | education = University of Virginia }} '''Henry Brannon''' (November 26, 1837 – November 24, 1914)<ref name="Clarksburg Obit">"Judge Henry Brannon Dies Very Suddenly", ''The Clarksburg Daily Telegram'' (November 25, 1914), p. 3.</ref> was a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from January 1, 1889, to December 31, 1912.
==Early life, education, and career== Born in Winchester, Virginia,<ref name="Clarksburg Obit"/><ref name="Baltimore Obit">"Judge Henry Brannon Dead", ''The Baltimore Sun'' (November 25, 1914), p. 3.</ref> Brannon graduated from the University of Virginia in 1858. He thereafter moved to Weston, Virginia, reading law to gain admission to the bar in 1859. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Lewis County, Virginia, in 1860. In 1871, he represented the county in the West Virginia House of Delegates, and in 1880, he was elected to a seat on the West Virginia eleventh judicial circuit, succeeding his own older brother, John Brannon.
==Judicial service and later life== In 1888, Brannon was elected to a twelve-year terms on the state supreme court, taking office the following January.<ref name="Clarksburg Obit"/><ref name="Baltimore Obit"/> Initially a Democrat, Brannon ran as a Republican in his successful 1900 reelection campaign.<ref name="Clarksburg Obit"/>
During his tenure, Brannon frequently clashed with fellow West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Marmaduke H. Dent, as Brannon preferred to rely on precedent and laissez-faire economic principles in his jurisprudence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reid |first=John |date=December 1962 |title=Henry Brannon and Marmaduke Dent: The Shapers of West Virginia Law, Part I |url=https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol65/iss1/3/ |journal=West Virginia Law Review |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=19-37}}</ref>
In 1901, Brannon published ''A Treatise on the Rights and Privileges Guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States'', which cataloged how each clause of the amendment had been interpreted by state and federal courts following its 1868 enactment.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brannon |first=Henry |title=A Treatise On The Rights And Privileges Guaranteed By The Fourteenth Amendment To The Constitution Of The United States |publisher=W. H. Anderson |year=1901 |location=Cincinnati}}</ref> While Brannon's treatise has been frequently cited in US Supreme Court cases like ''Mackenzie v. Hare'', it was criticized for minimally analyzing whether dominant interpretations were potentially flawed.<ref>{{Cite court|litigants=Mackenzie v. Hare|vol=239|reporter=U.S.|opinion=299|court=S.Ct.|date=December 6, 1915}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rowe |first=Leo Stanton |date=1901 |title=Review of A Treatise on the Rights and Privileges Guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1010205 |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=18 |pages=133–134 |issn=0002-7162 |jstor=1010205}}</ref>
Following his service on the court, he returned to private practice until his death.<ref name="Clarksburg Obit"/> Brannon died in Weston, West Virginia, at the age of 77, having argued a case before the circuit court the previous day, and complained of feeling ill afterwards.<ref name="Clarksburg Obit"/><ref name="Baltimore Obit"/> His wife having died several years earlier, he was survived by a son and four daughters.<ref name="Clarksburg Obit"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title=Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia |before=Okey Johnson |after=Charles W. Lynch |years=1889–1912}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brannon, Henry}} Category:1837 births Category:1914 deaths Category:People from Winchester, Virginia Category:University of Virginia alumni Category:U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Category:Members of the West Virginia House of Delegates Category:Justices of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia Category:People from Weston, West Virginia Category:19th-century members of the West Virginia Legislature