Editing William Howard Taft (section)

===Ohio lawyer and judge===
After admission to the [[Bar examination in the United States|Ohio bar]], Taft devoted himself to his job at the ''Commercial'' full-time. Halstead was willing to take him on permanently at an increased salary if he would give up the law, but Taft declined. In October 1880, Taft was appointed assistant prosecutor for [[Hamilton County, Ohio]], where Cincinnati is. He took office in January 1881. Taft served for a year as assistant prosecutor, trying his share of routine cases.{{sfn|Pringle vol 1|pp=54–55}} He resigned in January 1882 after President [[Chester A. Arthur]] appointed him Collector of Internal Revenue for Ohio's First District, an area centered on Cincinnati.{{sfn|Pringle vol 1|pp=57–58}} Taft refused to dismiss competent employees who were politically out of favor, and resigned effective in March 1883, writing to Arthur that he wished to begin private practice in Cincinnati.{{sfn|Lurie|pp=10–11}} In 1884, Taft campaigned for the Republican candidate for president, Maine Senator [[James G. Blaine]], who lost to New York Governor [[Grover Cleveland]].{{sfn|Pringle vol 1|pp=63–67}}

In 1887, Taft, then aged 29, was appointed to a vacancy on the Superior Court of Cincinnati by Governor [[Joseph B. Foraker]]. The appointment was good for just over a year, after which he would have to face the voters, and in April 1888, he sought election for the first of three times in his lifetime, the other two being for the presidency. He was elected to a full five-year term. Some two dozen of Taft's opinions as a state judge survive, the most significant being ''Moores & Co. v. Bricklayers' Union No. 1''{{efn|1889 Ohio Misc. Lexis 119, 10 Ohio Dec. reprint 181}} (1889) if only because it was used against him when he ran for president in 1908. The case involved bricklayers who refused to work for any firm that dealt with a company called Parker Brothers, with which they were in dispute. Taft ruled that the union's action amounted to a [[secondary boycott]], which was illegal.{{sfn|Pringle vol 1|pp=95–105}}

It is not clear when Taft met [[Helen Herron Taft|Helen Herron]] (often called Nellie), but it was no later than 1880, when she mentioned in her diary receiving an invitation to a party from him. By 1884, they were meeting regularly, and in 1885, after an initial rejection, she agreed to marry him. The wedding took place at the Herron home on June 19, 1886. William Taft remained devoted to his wife throughout their almost 44 years of marriage. Nellie Taft pushed her husband much as his parents had, and she could be very frank with her criticisms.{{sfn|Lurie|pp=13–15}}{{sfn|Pringle vol 1|pp=80–81}} The couple had three children, of whom the eldest, [[Robert A. Taft|Robert]], became a U.S. senator.<ref name="ANB" />