(January 6, 1824–September 12, 1898) was admitted to the bar in 1846 and commissioned by the legislature of Michigan to compile the state statutes in 1857. The following year he was chosen as reporter for the state Supreme Court. During his seven years in that position he edited 8 volumes of previous reports.
In 1859, he became one of 3 professors at the law school of the University of Michigan, where he also was secretary and dean of the department. Thomas Cooley was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1864 and served until 1885. At that time he became professor of history and Constitutional law at the university. He was the first chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1887–91.
Thomas Cooley was elected President of the American Bar Association in 1893. His writings include: A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union, 1868; edited versions of Blackstone’s Commentaries, 1871; Joseph Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution, 1873; The Law of Taxation, 1876; The Law of Torts, 1879; and The General Principles of Constitutional Law, 1890. In The General Principles of Constitutional Law, he wrote:
It was never intended by the Constitution that the government should be prohibited from recognizing religion, or that religious worship should never be provided for in cases where a proper recognition of Divine Providence in the working of government might seem to require it, and where it might be done without drawing an invidious distinction between religious beliefs, organizations, or sects.
The Christian religion was always recognized in the administration of the common law of the land, the fundamental principles of that religion must continue to be recognized in the same cases and to the same extent as formerly.2626