Henry Hammer, 94; Argued More Than 60 Supreme Court Cases

Henry Hammer, 94, South Carolina’s oldest practicing attorney, who argued more than 60 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won four, died Thursday in Columbia, S.C., after a brief hospitalization.

Hammer’s longevity in law was recognized in a ceremony in December by the South Carolina Supreme Court. He had worked steadily until early July, when he became ill.

His most important victory before the U.S. Supreme Court was in Byrd vs. Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative in 1958, in which the court ruled that people who sue in federal court are entitled to jury trials in cases where state laws conflict with that right.

Hammer grew up in Passaic, N.J. He graduated from high school at 16 and earned his law degree from Fordham University in New York. He launched his career in New Jersey in 1934.

During World War II he served as a lawyer in the judge advocate general’s office at Ft. Jackson, S.C. After the war he opened a practice in Columbia, eventually concentrating on appellate cases.