On June 10, 1916, Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes was nominated at the Republican National Convention as the party's presidential candidate. The primary reason for Hughes' nomination was not his service on the Court. In fact, Hughes was still a relatively new justice with only six years on the bench. Rather, it was Hughes' political background that attracted the Republicans. He had been governor of New York for two terms before being appointed to the Court by William Howard Taft in 1910. He also had been Taft's choice for vice-presidential running mate in 1912, although Hughes had declined the offer.

Hughes' move from Supreme Court bench to presidential candidate marked a high (or low, depending on the perspective) of an individual justice's involvement with electoral politics. Never before had a sitting Supreme Court justice received a major party nomination. Nor had one left the bench to run for president. Remarkably, this event came after more than a century of efforts by some of his predecessors to reinforce the notion that what Hughes was doing was something justices simply did not do – that is, use the Court as a stepping-stone to higher office or even possess much of an interest in or involvement with the electoral process. Hughes' candidacy in 1916 was the most visible contrary evidence to that message in the history of the Court.