Born in Vernon Township,[2] Trumbull County, Ohio, Rudkin attended Washington and Lee University and read law in 1887 to enter the bar.

[3] Rudkin was nominated by President Warren G. Harding on January 5, 1923, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated by Judge William W. Morrow.

1931) -This case involved an appeal by the Territory of Hawaii concerning "the validity of a statute of the territory of Hawaii providing that any person who shall habitually loaf, loiter, and/or idle upon any public street or highway or in any public place shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished as therein provided.

"[5] Speaking for the court (which upheld the judgment), Judge Rudkin stated in part: "It is a matter of common knowledge, of which we must take judicial cognizance, that the majority of mankind spend a goodly part of their waking hours in whiling or idling the time away, and much of that time is spent on public streets and highways and in public places.

On our streets daily are seen hundreds and even thousands of idle men who have nothing to do and no place to go, through no fault of their own, and are we to add to their misfortunes by declaring them lawbreakers and criminals?