[2] Nevertheless, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 31, 1899, and received his commission the same day.
[1] On February 6, 1912, President William Howard Taft announced that he would nominate Hook to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court that had been caused by the death of Justice John Marshall Harlan.
Opposition was raised, however, by leaders of the NAACP, the Washington Bee, and other African-American newspapers and organizations.
Concerned parties discussed Hook's decision in upholding the constitutionality of an Oklahoma Jim Crow law discriminating against African American passengers on trains crossing the state line between Kansas and Oklahoma.
[3] The railroad interests also continued their opposition to Hook, as did large corporations displeased with his rulings in antitrust cases.