Taft was a well-educated, hard-working, intelligent, admired, talented, ethical, moderate public service from a family of successful politicians, and he had an accomplished career as a judge, foreign administrator, and President. But what makes him unique among Presidents was that 100 years ago he also became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. As he had in other jobs, he instituted important and intelligent reforms and improvements, such as focusing on only cases of national and constitutional importance and getting Congress to build the Supreme Court building. In particular, Taft tried to convince the other justices to join in unanimous or near unanimous decisions, to avoid having the Court lose popular respect by issuing sharply divided opinions. Imagine that!