William O. Douglas

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For other people named William Douglas, see William Douglas (disambiguation) .

William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views and is often cited as the most liberal justice in the U.S. Supreme Court ’s history. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, becoming one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. He is the longest-serving U.S. Supreme Court justice in history, having served for 36 years and 209 days.

After a childhood in which he moved frequently, Douglas attended Whitman College on a scholarship. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1925 and joined the Yale Law School faculty. After serving as the third chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission , Douglas was successfully nominated to the Supreme Court in 1939, succeeding Justice Louis Brandeis . He was among those seriously considered for the 1944 Democratic vice presidential nomination and was subject to an unsuccessful draft movement prior to the 1948 U.S. presidential election . Douglas served on the Court until his retirement in 1975 and was succeeded by John Paul Stevens . Douglas holds a number of records as a Supreme Court justice, including the most opinions .

One of Douglas's most notable opinions was _Griswold v. Connecticut _ (1965), which established the constitutional right to privacy and was foundational to later cases such as _Eisenstadt v. Baird _, _Roe v. Wade _, _Lawrence v. Texas _ and _Obergefell v. Hodges _. His other notable opinions included _Skinner v. Oklahoma _ (1942), _United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. _ (1948), _Terminiello v. City of Chicago _ (1949), _Brady v. Maryland _ (1963), and _Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections _ (1966). Douglas joined the unanimous opinion in _Brown v. Board of Education _ (1954), which outlawed segregation in American public schools. He wrote notable concurring or dissenting opinions in _Dennis v. United States _ (1951), _United States v. O’Brien _ (1968), _Terry v. Ohio _ (1968), and _Brandenburg v. Ohio _ (1969). He was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War and an ardent advocate of environmentalism.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education

• 2 Military service

• 3 Law school

• 4 Yale Law School

• 5 Securities and Exchange Commission

• 6 Supreme Court

  • 6.1 Relationships with others at Supreme Court

  • 6.2 Judicial philosophy

  • 6.3 Rosenberg case

  • 6.4 Vietnam War

  • 6.5 "Trees have standing"

• 7 Environmentalism

• 8 Travel writing

• 9 Presidential politics

• 10 Impeachment attempts

  • 10.1 Rosenberg case

  • 10.2 1970 impeachment attempt fails

• 11 Judicial record-setter

• 12 Nicknames

• 13 Retirement

• 14 Personal life

• 15 Death

• 16 Legacy and honors

• 17 Bibliography

• 18 See also

• 19 Notes

• 20 References

• 21 Further reading

  • 21.1 Environmentalism

• 22 External links

Early life and education

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_O._Douglas&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Early life and education")

Douglas was born in 1898 in Maine Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota , to William Douglas and Julia Bickford Fisk.

Douglas's father was a Scottish

itinerant Presbyterian minister from Pictou County, Nova Scotia . The family first moved to California and then to Cleveland, Washington . Douglas said he suffered from an illness at age two that he described as [polio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliomyelitis "Poliomyeli

…

Legal scholars have noted that Douglas's judicial style was unusual in that he generally did not attempt to elaborate justifications for his judicial positions on the basis of text, history, or precedent. Douglas was known for writing short, pithy opinions that relied on philosophical insights, observations about current politics, and literature as much as more conventional judicial sources. Douglas wrote many of his opinions in twenty minutes, often publishing the first draft. Douglas was also known for his fearsome work ethic, publishing over thirty books and once telling an exhausted secretary, Fay Aull, "If you hadn't stopped working, you wouldn't be tired."

Douglas frequently disagreed with the other justices, dissenting in almost 40 percent of cases, more than half of the time writing only for himself. Ronald Dworkin argued that because Douglas believed his convictions were merely "a matter of his own emotional biases," Douglas would fail to meet "minimal intellectual responsibilities." Ultimately, Douglas believed that a judge's role was "not neutral" because, as he wrote, "The Constitution is not neutral. …