Lurton was twice captured by Union forces, the second time sent as a prisoner of war to Johnson's Island Prison Camp in Sandusky Bay, Ohio. He claimed he was later paroled by President Lincoln because of pleas for mercy from his mother but this was merely an anecdote he often repeated to dinner guests, according to historian Roger Long. Mr. Long explains in detail what the evidence shows in an article he wrote in the December 1994 edition of Civil War Times. According to Mr. Long, apparently he was paroled from Johnson's Island only when he signed the oath of allegiance, not because of any act of the president. Mr Long's article includes interesting details about Lurton's service as well as possible reasons for the anecdote he was so fond of repeating.
Federal judicial service
Lurton was nominated by President Grover Cleveland on March 22, 1893, to a joint seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge Howell Edmunds Jackson. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 27, 1893, and received his commission the same day. His service terminated on December 20, 1909, due to his elevation to the Supreme Court. Lurton was nominated by President William Howard Taft on December 13, 1909, to an Associate Justice seat on the Supreme Court of the United States vacated by Associate Justice Rufus W. Peckham. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 20, 1909, and received his commission the same day. Appointed at the age of 65, Lurton was the oldest justice to be appointed to the Supreme Court for the first time. He was Circuit Justice for the Second Circuit from January 10, 1910, until January 8, 1911, Circuit Justice for the Third Circuit from January 9, 1911, until March 17, 1912, and Circuit Justice for the Seventh Circuit from March 18, 1912, until July 12, 1914. His service terminated on July 12, 1914, due to his death in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Other service
Concurrent with his service on the Sixth Circuit, Lurton served as Dean of the law department of Vanderbilt University from 1905 to 1909.
Supreme Court appointment
In 1909, Lurton's friend, President William Howard Taft, named him to a seat on the Supreme Court that had been vacated by the death of Justice Rufus W. Peckham. It was the first of Taft's five Supreme Court appointments, six if one counts the elevation of Edward Douglass White to Chief Justice, and surprised some observers because unlike Taft, Lurton was a Democrat. Taft's attorney general George W. Wickersham said that at 66, Lurton was too old to become a Supreme Court justice, but Taft had always admired him. According to the Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Taft later said that "the chief pleasure of my administration" was the appointment of Lurton.
Judicial philosophy
Lurton sided most frequently on the court with Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a progressive Supreme Court justice. The most notable opinion he authored was probably the opinion of the Court in Coyle v. Smith, 221 U.S. 559, which held that the federal government could not tell a state where to locate its capital, as that all states must be on "equal footing."
Death
Lurton's tenure on the Court was brief, as he served only four years before dying in Atlantic City, New Jersey of a heart attack on July 12, 1914. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville, Tennessee.
