[186]
Taft has been rated among the greatest of the chief justices;[237] later Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia noted that this was "not so much on the basis of his opinions, perhaps because many of them ran counter to the ultimate sweep of history".[238] A successor as chief justice, Earl Warren, concurred: "In Taft's case, the symbol, the tag, the label usually attached to him is 'conservative.'It is certainly not of itself a term of opprobrium even when bandied by the critics, but its use is too often confused with 'reactionary.'"[179] Most commentators agree that Taft's most significant contribution as chief justice was his advocacy for reform of the high court, urging and ultimately gaining improvement in the Court's procedures and facilities.[179][190][239] Mason cited enactment of the Judges' Bill of 1925 as Taft's major achievement on the Court.[190] According to Anderson, as chief justice, Taft "was as aggressive in the pursuit of his agenda in the judicial realm as Theodore Roosevelt was in the presidential".[240]

Taft's boyhood home in Cincinnati
The house in Cincinnati in which Taft was born and lived as a boy is now the William Howard Taft National Historic Site.