US Supreme Court justice from 1939 to 1975
William O. Douglas
|
---|
Douglas in the 1930s
|
|
|
In office
April 17, 1939 ? November 12, 1975
[1]
|
Nominated by
| Franklin D. Roosevelt
|
---|
Preceded by
| Louis Brandeis
|
---|
Succeeded by
| John Paul Stevens
|
---|
|
In office
August 17, 1937 ? April 15, 1939
|
President
| Franklin D. Roosevelt
|
---|
Preceded by
| James M. Landis
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Jerome Frank
|
---|
|
In office
January 24, 1936 ? April 15, 1939
|
President
| Franklin D. Roosevelt
|
---|
Preceded by
| Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Leon Henderson
|
---|
|
|
Born
| William Orville Douglas
(
1898-10-16
)
October 16, 1898
Maine Township, Minnesota
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| January 19, 1980
(1980-01-19)
(aged 81)
Washington, D.C.
, U.S.
|
---|
Political party
| Democratic
|
---|
Spouses
| -
Mildred Riddle
(
m.
1923;
div.
1953)
-
Mercedes Hester Davidson
(
m.
1954;
div.
1963)
-
Joan Martin
(
m.
1963;
div.
1966)
-
Cathleen Heffernan
(
m.
1966)
|
---|
Children
| 2
|
---|
Education
| Whitman College
(
BA
)
Columbia University
(
LLB
)
|
---|
|
Allegiance
| United States
|
---|
Branch/service
| United States Army
|
---|
Years of service
| 1918
|
---|
Rank
| Private
|
---|
Unit
| Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Student Army Training Corps
, Whitman College
|
---|
Battles/wars
| World War I
|
---|
|
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
U.S. Supreme Court
's most
liberal
justice ever.
[2]
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. In 1975,
Time
called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court."
[3]
He is the
longest-serving justice in history
, having served for 36 years and 211 days.
After an itinerant childhood, 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
.
Douglas's notable opinions included
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
?
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 also served as an associate justice in the landmark
civil rights
case
Brown v. Board of Education
(1954), a Supreme Court case that outlawed segregation in American public schools. He wrote notable concurring or dissenting opinions in cases such as
Dennis v. United States
(1951),
United States v. O’Brien
(1968),
Terry v. Ohio
(1968), and
Brandenburg v. Ohio
(1969). He was also known as a strong opponent of the
Vietnam War
and an ardent advocate of
environmentalism
.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Douglas was born in 1898 in
Maine Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota
, to William Douglas and Julia Bickford Fisk.
[4]
[5]
Douglas's father was a
Scottish
[6]
litinerant
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
, although a biographer reveals that it was intestinal colic.
[7]
His mother attributed his recovery to a miracle, telling Douglas that one day he would be
President of the United States
.
[8]
His father died in
Portland, Oregon
in 1904, when Douglas was six years old. Douglas later claimed his mother had been left destitute.
[7]
After moving the family from town to town in the West, his mother, with three young children, settled in
Yakima, Washington
. William, like the rest of the Douglas family, did odd jobs to earn extra money, and a college education appeared to be unaffordable. He was the
valedictorian
at
Yakima High School
and did well enough in school to earn a full academic scholarship to attend Whitman College in
Walla Walla, Washington
.
[9]
At Whitman, Douglas became a member of
Beta Theta Pi
fraternity. He worked at various jobs while attending school, including as a waiter and janitor during the school year, and at a
cherry orchard
in the summer. Picking cherries, Douglas would say later, inspired him to pursue a legal career. He once said of his early interest in the law:
I worked among the very, very poor, the
migrant laborers
, the
Chicanos
and the
I.W.W's
who I saw being shot at by the police. I saw cruelty and hardness, and my impulse was to be a force in other developments in the law.
[10]
Douglas was inducted into
Phi Beta Kappa
,
[11]
participated on the debate team, and was elected as
student body president
in his final year. After graduating in 1920 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in
English
and economics, he taught English and Latin at his old high school for the next two years, hoping to earn enough to attend law school. "Finally," he said, "I decided it was impossible to save enough money by teaching and I said to hell with it."
[9]
Military service
[
edit
]
In the summer of 1918, Douglas took part in a U.S. Army
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
training encampment at the
Presidio of San Francisco
.
[12]
That fall, he joined the
Student Army Training Corps
at Whitman as a
private
.
[13]
He served from October to December, and was honorably discharged because the
Armistice of November 11, 1918
ended the war and the army's requirements for more soldiers and officers.
[13]
Law school
[
edit
]
He traveled
[
when?
]
to New York taking a job tending sheep on a Chicago-bound train, in return for free passage, with hopes to attend the Columbia Law School.
[9]
Douglas drew on his Beta Theta Pi membership to help him survive in New York, as he stayed at one of its houses and was able to borrow $75 from a fraternity brother from Washington, enough to enroll at Columbia.
[14]
Six months later, Douglas's funds were running out. The appointments office at the law school told him that a New York firm wanted a student to help prepare a
correspondence course
for law. Douglas earned $600 for his work, enabling him to stay in school. Hired for similar projects, he saved $1,000 by semester's end.
[14]
In August 1923, Douglas traveled to
La Grande, Oregon
, to marry Mildred Riddle, whom he had known in Yakima.
[8]
Douglas graduated second in his class at Columbia in 1925.
During the summer of 1925, Douglas started work at the firm of Cravath, DeGersdorff, Swaine and Wood (later
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
) after failing to obtain a
Supreme Court clerkship
with
Harlan F. Stone
.
[15]
[16]
Douglas was hired at Cravath by attorney
John J. McCloy
, who would later become the chairman of the Board of Chase Manhattan Bank.
[17]
Yale Law School
[
edit
]
Douglas quit the Cravath firm after four months. After one year, he moved back to Yakima, but soon regretted the move and never practiced law in Washington. After a time of unemployment and another months-long stint at Cravath, he started teaching at Columbia Law School.
[
citation needed
]
In 1928, he joined the faculty of
Yale Law School
, where he became an expert on
commercial litigation
and
bankruptcy law
. He was identified with the
legal realist movement
, which pushed for an understanding of law based less on formalistic legal doctrines and more on the real-world effects of the law. Teaching at Yale, he and the fellow professor
Thurman Arnold
were riding the
New Haven Railroad
and were inspired to set the sign
Passengers will please refrain
... to
Antonin Dvo?ak
's
Humoresque
#7.
[18]
Robert Maynard Hutchins
described Douglas as "the most outstanding law professor in the nation."
[19]
When Hutchins became president of the
University of Chicago
, Douglas accepted an offer to move there, but he changed his mind once he had been made a
Sterling Professor
at Yale.
[8]
Securities and Exchange Commission
[
edit
]
In 1934, Douglas left Yale after President
Franklin Roosevelt
nominated him to the
Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC).
[20]
By 1937, he had become an adviser and friend to the President and the chairman. He also became friends with a group of young New Dealers, including
Tommy "The Cork" Corcoran
and
Abe Fortas
. He was also close, both socially and in thinking to the Progressives of the era, such as Philip and Robert La Follette Jr. That social/political group befriended
Lyndon Johnson
, a freshman representative from the 10th District of Texas. In his 1982 book
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power
,
Robert Caro
wrote that in 1937, Douglas had helped to persuade Roosevelt to authorize the
Marshall Ford Dam
, a controversial project whose approval enabled Johnson to consolidate his power as a representative.
[21]
Supreme Court
[
edit
]
In 1939, Justice
Louis D. Brandeis
retired from the Court, and Roosevelt nominated Douglas as his replacement on March 20.
[20]
Douglas was Brandeis's personal choice as a successor.
[8]
Douglas later revealed that his appointment had been a great surprise to him (Roosevelt had summoned him to an "important meeting"), and Douglas feared that he would be named as the chairman of the
Federal Communications Commission
. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate
on April 4 by a vote of 62 to 4. The four negative votes were all cast by Republicans:
Lynn J. Frazier
,
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
,
Gerald P. Nye
, and
Clyde M. Reed
. Douglas was sworn into office on April 17, 1939. At the age of forty, Douglas was the fifth-youngest justice to be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
[22]
[a]
Relationships with others at Supreme Court
[
edit
]
Douglas was often at odds with fellow justice
Felix Frankfurter
, who believed in
judicial restraint
and thought the court should stay out of politics.
[20]
Douglas did not highly value judicial consistency or
stare decisis
when deciding cases.
[20]
"But the origin of Douglas and Frankfurter's deep-seated animosity went beyond important jurisprudential differences. Temperamentally, they were opposites. From the beginning of their close associations as justices, the two men simply grated on each other's nerves. . . . Although in 1974 Douglas claimed that there had been no 'war' between him and Frankfurter, the evidence to the contrary was overwhelming. Frankfurter and Douglas, two important American jurists whose decades-long bitter debates (indeed, whose 'wars') contributed a great deal to our understanding of constitutionalism in a modern society, could not tolerate each other. Intentionally and unintentionally, they went out of their way to harass each other for over two decades."
[23]
Judge
Richard A. Posner
, who was a law clerk for justice
William J. Brennan Jr.
during the latter part of Douglas's tenure, characterized Douglas as "a bored, distracted, uncollegial, irresponsible" Supreme Court justice, as well as "rude, ice-cold, hot-tempered, ungrateful, foul-mouthed, self-absorbed" and so abusive in "treatment of his staff to the point where his law clerks?whom he described as 'the lowest form of human life'?took to calling him "shithead" behind his back." Posner asserts also that "Douglas's judicial oeuvre is slipshod and slapdash," but Douglas's "intelligence, his energy, his academic and government experience, his flair for writing, the leadership skills that he had displayed at the SEC, and his ability to charm when he bothered to try" could have let him "become the greatest justice in history."
[8]
Brennan once stated that Douglas was one of only "two geniuses" he had met in his life (the other being Posner).
[24]
Judicial philosophy
[
edit
]
In general, legal scholars have noted that Douglas's judicial style was unusual in that he 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 which 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.
[19]
Douglas was also known for his fearsome work ethic, by publishing over thirty books and once telling an exhausted secretary, Fay Aull, "If you hadn't stopped working, you wouldn't be tired."
[19]
Douglas frequently disagreed with the other justices, dissenting in almost 40% of cases, more than half of the time writing only for himself.
[19]
Ronald Dworkin
would conclude that because Douglas believed his convictions were merely "a matter of his own emotional biases," Douglas would fail to meet "minimal intellectual responsibilities."
[25]
Ultimately, Douglas believed that a judge's role was "not neutral" as "The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of the people."
[26]
Douglas has been widely characterized as a
civil libertarian
.
[27]
On the bench, Douglas became known as a strong advocate of
First Amendment
rights. With fellow justice
Hugo Black
, Douglas argued for a "literalist" interpretation of the
First Amendment
, insisting that the First Amendment's command that "no law" shall restrict freedom of speech should be interpreted literally. He wrote the opinion in
Terminiello v. City of Chicago
(1949), overturning the conviction of a Catholic priest who allegedly caused a "breach of the peace" by making anti-Semitic comments during a raucous public speech. Douglas, joined by Black, furthered his advocacy of a broad reading of First Amendment rights by dissenting from the Supreme Court's decision in
Dennis v. United States
(1952), which affirmed the conviction of the leader of the
U.S. Communist Party
. Douglas was publicly critical of censorship, saying "The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth."
[28]
In 1944, Douglas voted with the majority to uphold the wartime
internment of Japanese Americans
in
Korematsu v. United States
after having initially planned to dissent, a vote he later regretted,
[29]
but, over the course of his career, he grew to become a leading advocate of individual rights. He was suspicious of majority rule as it related to social and moral questions, and frequently expressed concern about forced conformity with "
the Establishment
". For example, Douglas wrote the decision in
Griswold v. Connecticut
(1965) in stating that a constitutional
right to privacy
forbids state contraception bans because "specific guarantees in the
Bill of Rights
have
penumbras
, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance."
[20]
[30]
That went too far for Hugo Black, who dissented in
Griswold
despite having been allies with Douglas. Justice
Clarence Thomas
would years later hang a sign in his chambers reading, "Please don't emanate in the penumbras."
[19]
Conservative Judge
Robert Bork
had no objection to the concept of penumbras, writing, "There is nothing exceptional about [Douglas's] thought, other than the language of penumbras and emanations. Courts often give protection to a constitutional freedom by creating a buffer zone, by prohibiting a government from doing something not in itself forbidden but likely to lead to an invasion of a right specified in the Constitution."
[31]
Prof.
David P. Currie
of the
University of Chicago Law School
called Douglas's
Griswold
opinion "one of the most hypocritical opinions in the history of the Court."
[32]
Douglas and Black also disagreed in
Fortson v. Morris
(1967), which cleared the path for the
Georgia State Legislature
to choose the governor in the deadlocked
1966
race between
Democrat
Lester Maddox
and
Republican
Howard Callaway
. Whereas Black voted with the majority under strict construction to uphold the state constitutional provision, Douglas and Abe Fortas dissented. According to Douglas, Georgia tradition would guarantee a Maddox victory but he had trailed Callaway by some 3,000 votes in the general election returns. Douglas also saw the issue as a continuation of the earlier decision
Gray v. Sanders
, which had struck down Georgia's
County Unit System
, a kind of
electoral college
formerly used to choose the governor. According to political scientists
Andrew D. Martin
and Kevin M. Quinn, he was by far the most liberal justice in the history of the Supreme Court with a Martin-Quinn score of -8 at his most liberal.
[33]
He voted to strike down the death penalty in
Furman v. Georgia
, argued that the environment should be granted
legal personhood
, tried to declare the
Vietnam War
unconstitutional because Congress had never declared war, and generally showed an uncompromising defense of individual rights from which even stalwart liberals Brennan and Marshall shied away.
[34]
[35]
Douglas was notable as a public pre-
Stonewall
supporter of gay rights.
[36]
Douglas dissented in
Boutilier v. INS
in which the Court ruled that gays and lesbians were included in the list of “psychopathic personalities” that Congress could deport, arguing that the term “psychopathic personality” was unconstitutionally vague, and even if it were not, not all gays and lesbians are psychopaths.
[37]
In 1968, in a concurring opinion in the case of
Flast v. Cohen
, Douglas indicated that he did not believe in
judicial restraint
:
There has long been a school of thought here that the less the judiciary does, the better. It is often said that judicial intrusion should be infrequent, since it is "always attended with a serious evil, namely, that the correction of legislative mistakes comes from the outside, and the people thus lose the political experience, and the moral education and stimulus that come from fighting the question out in the ordinary way, and correcting their own errors"; that the effect of a participation by the judiciary in these processes is "to dwarf the political capacity of the people, and to deaden its sense of moral responsibility." J. Thayer, John Marshall 106, 107 (1901).¶
The late Edmond Cahn, who opposed that view, stated my philosophy. He emphasized the importance of the role that the federal judiciary was designed to play in guarding basic rights against majoritarian control. ... His description of our constitutional tradition was in these words: "Be not reasonable with inquisitions, anonymous informers, and secret files that mock American justice. Be not reasonable with punitive denationalizations, ex post facto deportations, labels of disloyalty, and all the other stratagems for outlawing human beings from the community of mankind. These devices have put us to shame. Exercise the full judicial power of the United States; nullify them, forbid them, and make us proud again." Can the Supreme Court Defend Civil Liberties? in Samuel, ed., Toward a Better America 132, 144 -145 (1968).
[38]
"Critics have sometimes charged that [Douglas] was result oriented and guilty of oversimplification; those who understand how he thought, and who share his compassion, conscience, and sense of fair dealing, see him as courageous and farsighted."
[39]
"There is no necessary contradiction between these two views."
[32]
Rosenberg case
[
edit
]
On June 17, 1953, Douglas granted a temporary
stay of execution
to
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
, who had been convicted of selling the plans for the
atomic bomb
to the Soviet Union during the
Cold War
. The basis for the stay was that Judge
Irving Kaufman
had sentenced the Rosenbergs to death without the consent of the jury. While this was permissible under the
Espionage Act of 1917
, under which the Rosenbergs were tried, a later law, the
Atomic Energy Act of 1946
, held that only a jury could pronounce the death penalty. Since at the time the stay was granted the Supreme Court was out of session, this stay meant that the Rosenbergs could expect to wait at least six months before the case was heard.
When
Attorney General
Herbert Brownell
heard about the stay, however, he immediately took his objection to
Chief Justice
Fred M. Vinson
, who reconvened the Court before the appointed date and set aside the stay. Douglas had departed for vacation, but on learning of the special session of the Court, he returned to Washington.
[16]
: 324?325
Because of widespread opposition to his decision, Douglas briefly faced
impeachment
proceedings in Congress but attempts to remove him from the Court went nowhere.
[40]
Vietnam War
[
edit
]
Douglas took strong positions on the Vietnam War. In 1952, Douglas traveled to Vietnam and met with
Ho Chi Minh
. During the trip Douglas became friendly with
Ngo Dinh Diem
and in 1953 he personally introduced the nationalist leader to senators
Mike Mansfield
and
John F. Kennedy
. Douglas became one of the chief promoters for U.S. support of Diem, with CIA deputy director Robert Amory crediting Diem becoming "our man in Indochina" to a conversation with Douglas during a party at
Martin Agronsky
's house.
[41]
After Diem's assassination in November 1963, Douglas became strongly critical of the war, believing Diem had been killed because he "was not sufficiently servile to
Pentagon
demands."
[41]
Douglas now outspokenly argued the war was illegal, dissenting whenever the Court passed on an opportunity to hear such claims.
[42]
In 1968 Douglas issued an order blocking the shipment of Army reservists to Vietnam, before the eight other justices unanimously reversed him.
[41]
In
Schlesinger v. Holtzman
(1973) Justice
Thurgood Marshall
issued an
in-chambers opinion
declining Rep.
Elizabeth Holtzman
's request for a court order stopping the military from bombing
Cambodia
.
[43]
The Court was in recess for the summer but the Congresswoman reapplied, this time to Douglas.
[41]
Douglas met with Holtzman's
ACLU
lawyers at his home in
Goose Prairie, Washington
, and promised them a hearing the next day.
[41]
On Friday, August 3, 1973, Douglas held a hearing in the
Yakima federal courthouse
, where he dismissed the Government's argument that he was causing a "constitutional confrontation" by saying, "we live in a world of confrontations. That's what the whole system is about."
[41]
On August 4, Douglas ordered the military to stop bombing, reasoning "denial of the application before me would catapult our airmen as well as Cambodian peasants into the death zone."
[44]
The U.S. military ignored Douglas's order.
[43]
Six hours later the eight other justices reconvened by telephone for a special term and unanimously overturned Douglas's ruling.
[45]
"Trees have standing"
[
edit
]
Douglas was highly innovative in legal theory.
[46]
For example, in his dissenting opinion in the landmark environmental law case
Sierra Club v. Morton
, 405 U.S. 727 (1972), Douglas argued that "inanimate objects" should have standing to sue in court:
The critical question of "standing" would be simplified and also put neatly in focus if we fashioned a federal rule that allowed environmental issues to be litigated before federal agencies or federal courts in the name of the inanimate object about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers and where injury is the subject of public outrage. Contemporary public concern for protecting nature's ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation. This suit would therefore be more properly labeled as
Mineral King v. Morton
.
[47]
He continued:
Inanimate objects are sometimes parties in litigation. A ship has a legal personality, a
fiction
found useful for maritime purposes. The
corporation sole
?a creature of ecclesiastical law?is an acceptable adversary and large fortunes ride on its cases ... So it should be as respects valleys, alpine meadows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, beaches, ridges, groves of trees, swampland, or even air that feels the destructive pressures of modern technology and modern life. The river, for example, is the living symbol of all the life it sustains or nourishes?fish, aquatic insects, water ouzels, otter, fisher, deer, elk, bear, and all other animals, including man, who are dependent on it or who enjoy it for its sight, its sound, or its life. The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it.
[47]
Environmentalism
[
edit
]
Douglas was a lifelong
mountaineer
. In his autobiographical
Of Men and Mountains
(1950), Douglas discusses his close childhood connections with nature.
[48]
In the 1950s, proposals were made to create a highway along the path of the C&O Canal, which ran on the Maryland bank parallel to the Potomac River.
The Washington Post
editorial page supported the action. However, Douglas, who frequently hiked on the Canal towpath, opposed the plan and challenged reporters to hike the 185-mile length of the Canal with him. After the hike, the
Post
changed its stance and advocated preservation of the Canal in its historic state. Douglas is widely credited with saving the Canal and with its eventual designation as a
National Historic Park
in 1971.
[49]
He served on the board of directors of the
Sierra Club
from 1960 to 1962 and wrote prolifically on his love of the outdoors. In 1962, Douglas wrote a glowing review of
Rachel Carson
's book
Silent Spring
, which was included in the widely-read
Book-of-the-Month Club
edition.
He later swayed the Supreme Court to preserve the
Red River Gorge
in eastern Kentucky, when a proposal to build a dam and flood the gorge reached the Court. Douglas personally visited the area on November 18, 1967. The Red River Gorge's Douglas Trail is named in his honor.
[
citation needed
]
In May 1962,
[50]
Douglas and his wife, Cathleen, were invited by Neil Compton and the Ozark Society to visit and canoe down part of the free flowing
Buffalo River
in Arkansas. They put in at the low water bridge at Boxley. That experience made him a fan of the river and the young organization's idea of protecting it. Douglas was instrumental in having the Buffalo preserved as a free-flowing river left in its natural state.
[51]
The decision was opposed by the region's
Corps of Army Engineers
. The act that soon followed designated the Buffalo River as America's first National River.
[52]
Douglas was a self-professed outdoorsman. According to
The Thru-Hiker's Companion
, a guide published by the
Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association
, Douglas hiked the entire 2,000 miles (3,200 km) trail from Georgia to Maine.
[53]
His love for the environment carried through to his judicial reasoning. His interests in natural history are also reflected in the fact that he collected plant specimens for the herbarium of the University of Texas at Austin. They curate at least 14 vascular plant specimens collected by Douglas together with botanist Donovan Stewart Correll, Head of the Botanical Laboratory, Texas Research Foundation in February and June 1965.
[54]
The specimens collected in February were from Presidio and Brewster Counties?several from Capote Falls. The specimens collected in June were from Blanco, Gillespie, and Llano Counties?near Austin, Texas. The Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming curates a lichen collected by William O. Douglas in Snoqualmie National Forest.
Douglas's active role in advocating the preservation and protection of wilderness across the United States earned him the nickname "Wild Bill". Douglas was a friend and frequent guest of
Harry R. Truman
, the owner of the
Mount St. Helens
Lodge at
Spirit Lake
in Washington.
In 1967, on a hike to save
Sunfish Pond
on the
Appalachian Trail
in
New Jersey
, Douglas was accompanied by more than a thousand people.
[55]
He said: "It's a vital element in the need to save some of our wilderness from the encroachment of civilization."
[56]
Travel writing
[
edit
]
From 1950 to 1961, Douglas travelled extensively in the Middle East and Asia. Douglas wrote many books about his experiences and observations during these trips. Other than writers from
National Geographic
?whom he sometimes met on the road?Douglas was one of the few American travel writers to visit these remote regions during this period in time. His travel books include:
- Strange Lands and Friendly People
(1950)
- Beyond the High Himalayas
(1952)
- North From Malaya
(1953)
- Russian Journey
(1956)
- Exploring the Himalaya
(1958)
- West of the Indus
(1958)
- My Wilderness, The Pacific West
(1960)
- My Wilderness, East to Katahdin
(1961)
In his memoir,
The Court Years
, Douglas wrote that he was sometimes criticized for taking too much time off from the bench, and writing travel books while on the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Douglas maintained that the travel gave him a world-wide perspective that was helpful in resolving cases before the Court. It also gave him a perspective on political systems that did not benefit from the legal protections in the American Constitution.
[57]
Presidential politics
[
edit
]
When, in early 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided not to support the renomination of Vice President
Henry A. Wallace
at the party's national convention, a short list of possible replacements was drafted. The names on the list included former senator and Supreme Court justice
James F. Byrnes
of South Carolina, former senator (and future Supreme Court justice)
Sherman Minton
, former governor and
high commissioner to the Philippines
Paul McNutt
of Indiana,
House speaker
Sam Rayburn
of Texas, Senator
Alben W. Barkley
of Kentucky, Senator
Harry S. Truman
of Missouri, and Douglas.
Five days before the vice presidential nominee was to be chosen at the convention, on July 15,
Committee chairman
Robert E. Hannegan
received a letter from Roosevelt stating that his choice for the nominee would be either "Harry Truman or Bill Douglas". After Hannegan released the letter to the convention on July 20, the nomination went without incident, and Truman was nominated on the second ballot. Douglas received two votes on the second ballot and none on the first.
After the convention, Douglas's supporters spread the rumor that the note sent to Hannegan had read "Bill Douglas or Harry Truman", not the other way around.
[58]
These supporters claimed that Hannegan, a Truman supporter, feared that Douglas's nomination would drive Southern white voters away from the ticket (Douglas had a strong anti-
segregation
record on the Supreme Court) and had switched the names to suggest that Truman was Roosevelt's real choice.
[58]
By 1948, Douglas's presidential aspirations were rekindled by Truman's low popularity, after he had succeeded Roosevelt in 1945. Many Democrats, believing that Truman could not be elected in November, began trying to find a replacement candidate. Attempts were made to draft popular retired General
Dwight D. Eisenhower
, a war hero, for the nomination. A "Draft Douglas" campaign, complete with souvenir buttons and hats, sprang up in New Hampshire and several other primary states. Douglas campaigned for the nomination for a short time, but he soon withdrew his name from consideration.
In the end, Eisenhower refused to be drafted, and Truman won nomination easily. Although Truman approached Douglas about the vice presidential nomination, the justice turned him down. Douglas's close associate Tommy Corcoran was later heard to ask, "Why be a number two man to a number two man?"
[59]
Truman selected Senator
Alben W. Barkley
and the two won the
election
.
Impeachment attempts
[
edit
]
Political opponents made two unsuccessful attempts to remove Douglas from the Supreme Court.
Rosenberg case
[
edit
]
On June 17, 1953, U.S. Representative
William M. Wheeler
of Georgia, infuriated by Douglas's brief
stay of execution
in the
Rosenberg case
, introduced a resolution to impeach him. The resolution was referred the next day to the Judiciary Committee to investigate the charges. On July 7, 1953, the committee voted to end the investigation.
[60]
1970 impeachment attempt fails
[
edit
]
Douglas maintained a busy speaking and publishing schedule to supplement his income. He became severely burdened financially because of a bitter divorce and settlement with his first wife. He sustained additional financial setbacks after divorces and settlements with his second and third wives.
[16]
Douglas became president of the Parvin Foundation. His ties to the foundation (which was financed by the sale of the infamous
Flamingo Hotel
by casino financier and foundation benefactor Albert Parvin) became a prime target for House Minority Leader
Gerald Ford
. Besides being personally disgusted by Douglas's lifestyle, Ford was also mindful that Douglas's protege Abe Fortas was forced to resign because of ties to a similar foundation.
[61]
Fortas would later say that he "resigned to save Douglas," thinking that the dual investigations of himself and Douglas would stop with his resignation.
[61]
Some scholars
[62]
[63]
have argued that Ford's impeachment attempt was politically motivated. Those who support this contention note Ford's well-known disappointment with the Senate over the failed nominations of
Clement Haynsworth
and
G. Harrold Carswell
to succeed Fortas. In April 1970, Ford moved to impeach Douglas in an attempt to hit back at the Senate. House Judiciary Chairman
Emanuel Celler
handled the case carefully and did not uncover evidence of any criminal conduct by Douglas. Attorney General
John N. Mitchell
and the Nixon administration worked to gather evidence against him.
[64]
Ford moved forward with the proceedings.
The hearings began in late April 1970. Ford was the main witness, and attacked Douglas's "liberal opinions", his "defense of the 'filthy' film", the controversial Swedish film
I Am Curious (Yellow)
(1970), and his ties to Parvin. Douglas was also criticized for accepting $350 for an article he wrote on
folk music
in the magazine
Avant Garde
. Its publisher had served a prison sentence for the distribution of another magazine in 1966 that had been deemed obscene by some critics. Describing Douglas's article, Ford stated, "The article itself is not pornographic, although it praises the lusty, lurid, and risque along with the social protest of left-wing folk singers." Ford also attacked Douglas for publishing an article in
Evergreen Review
, which he claimed was known to publish photographs of naked women. The Republican congressmen, however, refused to give the majority Democrats copies of the magazines described, prompting Congressman
Wayne Hays
to remark, "Has anybody read the article ? or is everybody over there who has a magazine just looking at the pictures?"
[65]
As it became clear that the impeachment proceedings would be unsuccessful, they were brought to a close without a public vote.
[66]
According to Joshua E. Kastenberg of the
University of New Mexico School of Law
, there were several purposes behind Ford's and Nixon's push to have Douglas impeached. First, while it was true that Nixon and Ford were angered at the Senate's determination not to confirm Haynsworth and Carswell, Nixon had a deep-seated hatred of Douglas. An attempt to have Douglas impeached and then brought to a Senate trial would further cement the alleged "Southern Strategy", as most of Ford's congressional allies against Douglas were Southern Democrats. Additionally, Nixon and Kissinger had secretly planned for an April 30 ? May 1 invasion of Cambodia and Nixon thought that there was a possibility of using a House investigation into Douglas to deflect news coverage. Professor Kastenberg notes in his recent book on the subject that Attorney General John Mitchell and his deputy, William Wilson, had promised Ford that the Central Intelligence Agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had evidence of Douglas's criminal conduct. In the end, however, none of these agencies had any evidence of wrongdoing by Douglas, but the promise led Ford to accuse Douglas of consorting with organized crime and Communists, and therefore of being a threat to national security.
[67]
Around this time, Douglas came to believe that strangers snooping around his Washington home were
FBI
agents, attempting to plant
marijuana
to entrap him. In a private letter to his neighbors, he said: "I wrote you last fall or winter that federal agents were in Yakima and Goose Prairie looking me over at Goose Prairie. I thought they were merely counting fence posts. But I learned in New York City yesterday that they were planting marijuana with the prospect of a nice big TV-covered raid in July or August. I forgot to tell you that this gang in power is not in search of truth. They are 'search and destroy' people."
[68]
Judicial record-setter
[
edit
]
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Douglas set a number of records, all of which still stand. He sat on the U.S. Supreme Court for more than thirty-six years (1939?75), longer than any other justice. During those years, he wrote some thirty books in addition to his
opinions
and
dissenting opinions
and gave more speeches than any other justice. Douglas had the most marriages (four) and the most divorces (three) of any justice serving on the bench.
[19]
Nicknames
[
edit
]
During his time on the Supreme Court, Douglas picked up a number of
nicknames
from both admirers and detractors. The most common epithet was "Wild Bill" in reference to his independent and often-unpredictable stances and his
cowboy
-style mannerisms, but many of the latter were considered by some to be affectations for the consumption of the press.
[16]
Retirement
[
edit
]
Since the 1970 impeachment hearings, Douglas had wanted to retire from the Court. He wrote to his friend and former student
Abe Fortas
: "My ideas are way out of line with current trends, and I see no particular point in staying around and being obnoxious."
[61]
However, he did not want to do so when a Republican was in the White House and would nominate his successor, saying "I won't resign while there's a breath in my body ?until we get a Democratic President."
[69]
At 76 on December 31, 1974, on vacation with his wife Cathleen in the
Bahamas
, Douglas suffered a debilitating stroke in the right hemisphere of his brain. It paralyzed his left leg and forced him to use a wheelchair. Douglas was severely disabled but insisted on continuing to participate in Supreme Court affairs despite his obvious incapacity. Seven of his fellow justices (with
Byron White
vehemently disagreeing)
[70]
voted to postpone until the next term any argued case in which Douglas's vote might make a difference.
[71]
Douglas finally retired on November 12, 1975, after 36 years of service. He had been the last serving Supreme Court justice to have been appointed by Roosevelt. Indeed, Douglas had outlasted the last of
Harry S. Truman's appointments
by eight years and was the last sitting justice to have served on the
Hughes
,
Stone
, and
Vinson
Courts.
Douglas's formal resignation was submitted, as required by federal protocols, to his longtime political nemesis, then-President
Gerald Ford
. In his response, Ford put aside previous differences and paid tribute to the retiring justice:
May I express on behalf of all our countrymen this nation's great gratitude for your more than thirty-six years as a member of the Supreme Court. Your distinguished years of service are unequaled in all the history of the Court.
[72]
: 334
Ford hosted William and Cathleen Douglas as honored guests at a White House
state dinner
later that month. Ford later said of the occasion, "We had had differences in the past, but I wanted to stress that bygones were bygones."
[72]
: 206
Douglas maintained that he could assume judicial
senior status
on the Court and attempted to continue serving in that capacity, according to authors
Bob Woodward
and
Scott Armstrong
. He refused to accept his retirement and tried to participate in the Court's cases well into 1976, after
John Paul Stevens
had taken his former seat.
[73]
Douglas reacted with outrage when, returning to his old chambers, he discovered that his clerks had been reassigned to Stevens, and when he tried to file opinions in cases whose arguments he had heard before his retirement, Chief Justice
Warren Burger
ordered all justices, clerks, and other staff members to refuse help to Douglas in those efforts. When Douglas tried in March 1976 to hear arguments in a capital-punishment case,
Gregg v. Georgia
, the nine sitting justices signed a formal letter informing him that his retirement had ended his official duties on the Court. It was only then that Douglas withdrew from Supreme Court business.
[74]
One commentator has attributed some of his behavior after his stroke to
anosognosia
, which can lead an affected person to be unaware and unable to acknowledge disease in himself, and often results in defects in reasoning, decision-making, emotions, and feeling.
[75]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Douglas's first wife was Mildred Riddle, a teacher at
North Yakima High School
six years his senior, whom he married on August 16, 1923. They had two children, Mildred and William Jr.
[76]
William Douglas Jr. became an actor, playing Gerald Zinser in
PT 109
.
On October 2, 1949, Douglas had thirteen of his ribs broken after he got thrown by a horse and he tumbled down a rocky hillside.
[77]
As a result of his injuries, Douglas did not return to the Court until March 1950,
[78]
and did not take part in many of that term's cases.
[79]
Four months after his return to the court, Douglas had to be hospitalized again when he was kicked by a horse.
[16]
[78]
[80]
Douglas divorced Riddle in July 1953. Douglas's former friend
Thomas Gardiner Corcoran
represented Riddle in the divorce, securing alimony with an "escalator clause" that financially motivated Douglas to publish more books.
[8]
Douglas was not informed about Riddle's 1969 death until several months had passed because his children had stopped talking to him.
[19]
While still married to Riddle, Douglas began openly pursuing Mercedes Hester Davidson in 1951.
[19]
Other justices at the time kept mistresses as secretaries or kept them away from the Court building according to Douglas's messenger Harry Datcher, but Douglas "did what he did in the open. He didn't give a damn what people thought of him."
[19]
Douglas married Davidson on December 14, 1954.
[19]
[81]
In 1961, Douglas pursued Joan "Joanie" Martin, an
Allegheny College
student writing her thesis on him.
[19]
In the summer of 1963, he divorced Davidson; on August 5, 1963, at the age of 64, Douglas married 23-year-old Martin .
[82]
Douglas and Martin divorced in 1966.
On July 15, 1966, Douglas married Cathleen Heffernan, then a 22-year-old student at
Marylhurst College
.
[83]
They met when he was vacationing at
Mount St. Helens
Lodge, a mountain wilderness lodge in Washington state at
Spirit Lake
, where she was working for the summer as a waitress.
[84]
Though their
age difference
was a subject of national controversy at the time of their marriage,
[85]
they remained together until his death in 1980.
[86]
For much of his life, Douglas was dogged by various rumors and allegations about his private life, originating from political rivals and other detractors of his liberal legal opinions on the Court?often a matter of controversy. In one such instance in 1966, Republican Representative
Bob Dole
of Kansas attributed his court decisions to his "bad judgment from a matrimonial standpoint". Several other Republican members of Congress introduced resolutions in the
House of Representatives
, though none ever passed, that called for investigation of Douglas's moral character.
[84]
Daniel Pierce Thompson
was Douglas's great-granduncle.
[87]
Death
[
edit
]
Four years after retiring from the Supreme Court, Douglas died on January 19, 1980, at age 81, at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, DC.
[88]
He was survived by his fourth wife, Cathleen Douglas, and two children, Mildred and William Jr., with his first wife.
[
citation needed
]
Douglas is interred in Section 5 of Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of eight other former Supreme Court justices:
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
,
Warren E. Burger
,
William Rehnquist
,
Hugo Black
,
Potter Stewart
,
William J. Brennan
,
Thurgood Marshall
and
Harry Blackmun
.
[89]
[90]
Throughout his life Douglas claimed he had been a U.S. Army private during
World War I
, which was inscribed on his headstone. Some historians, including biographer
Bruce Murphy
, asserted that this claim was false,
[7]
[8]
[16]
although Murphy later added, according to
Washington Post
editorial writer
Charles Lane
, that Douglas's "career on the court makes it 'appropriate'" that he be buried in Arlington Cemetery.
[13]
Lane engaged in further research?consulting applicable provisions of the relevant federal statutes, locating Douglas's honorable discharge and speaking with Arlington Cemetery staff.
[13]
Records in the
Library of Congress
showed that from June to December 1918, Douglas served in the SATC as (what the War Department's regulations termed) "a soldier in the Army of the United States ... placed upon active-duty status immediately."
[13]
Tom Sherlock, Arlington's official historian, told Lane that an "active-duty recruit whose service was limited to boot camp would qualify" to be buried in Arlington.
[13]
Lane therefore concluded, "Legally, then, Douglas may have had a plausible claim to be a 'Private, U.S. Army,' as his headstone at Arlington reads."
Legacy and honors
[
edit
]
- In 1962, Douglas was awarded the
National Audubon Society
's highest honor, the Audubon Medal.
[91]
- The 1984 Washington Wilderness Act designated the Cougar Lake Roadless area as the
William O. Douglas Wilderness
, which adjoins
Mount Rainier National Park
in Washington State.
[92]
- Douglas Falls
, in the
Appalachian Mountains
of North Carolina, is supposedly named for him.
- The William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom in
Beverly Hills, California
, is named for him.
- Douglas was elected to the Ecology Hall of Fame for his dedication to conservation.
- The William O. Douglas Honors College at
Central Washington University
in Ellensburg, Washington, is named for him.
- The
William O. Douglas Federal Building
, a historic post office,
courthouse
, and federal office building in Yakima, Washington, which is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
, was renamed in his honor in 1978.
- Since 1972, the William O. Douglas Committee, a select group of law students at
Gonzaga University School of Law
in
Spokane, Washington
, has sponsored a series of lectures on the
First Amendment
in Douglas's honor.
[93]
Douglas was the first speaker for the annual series.
[93]
- A statue of Douglas was installed at
A.C. Davis High School
, in Yakima, Washington. It was dedicated in 1978 to Douglas when the new school was opened.
- William O. Douglas Hall was named in his honor at his alma mater, Whitman College.
- Douglas Hall, apartments for continuing students at
Earl Warren College
, at the
University of California, San Diego
, is named for him as well.
- In 1977, a bust of Douglas was erected along the
towpath
of the
C & O Canal
in
Georgetown
in Washington, D.C, and the
C & O Canal National Historical Park
was officially dedicated to Douglas in honor of his exhaustive efforts dating from the 1950s in support of preserving the historic canal.
[94]
In 1998, the Park commemorated the 100th Anniversary of Douglas's birth by unveiling a portrait of Justice Douglas hiking along the
towpath
by artist Tom Kozar. The portrait, commissioned by the
C&O Canal Association
, now hangs in the
Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center
.
[95]
- Douglas Trail, which leads to the
Appalachian Trail
and
Sunfish Pond
in
New Jersey
, is named after him.
[55]
- Mountain - The Journey of Justice Douglas
is a play written by Douglas Scott which explores the life of William O. Douglas. Produced in 1990 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York, NY.
[96]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
The papers of William O. Douglas from his career as professor of law, Securities and Exchange commissioner, and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court were bequeathed by him to the
Library of Congress
.
[97]
- Go East, Young Man
: The Early Years; The Autobiography of William O. Douglas
ISBN
0-394-71165-3
- The Court Years, 1939 to 1975: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas
ISBN
0-394-49240-4
- "Mr. Lincoln & the Negroes: The Long Road to Equality", 1963, Atheneum Press, New York.
LCCN
63-17851
- Democracy and finance: The addresses and public statements of William O. Douglas as member and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
ISBN
0-8046-0556-4
- Nature's Justice: Writings of William O. Douglas
ISBN
0-87071-482-1
- Strange Lands and Friendly People
, by William O. Douglas
ISBN
1-4067-7204-6
- West of the Indus
, by William O. Douglas, 1958,
ASIN
B0007DMD1O
- Beyond the High Himalayas
, by William O. Douglas, 1952
ISBN
112112979X
- North From Malaya
, by William O. Douglas
ASIN
B000UCP8IW
- Points of Rebellion
, by William O. Douglas
ISBN
0-394-44068-4
- An Interview with William O. Douglas by William O. Douglas
(sound recording)
ASIN
B000S592XI
- An Interview with William O. Douglas
, Folkway Records FW 07350
- The Mike Wallace Interview
, with
Mike Wallace
May 11, 1958 (video)
- The Mike Wallace Interview
, May 11, 1958 (transcript)
Douglas was also a contributor to
Playboy
magazine:
[98]
[99]
- "The Attack on [the right to] Privacy" (December 1967)
- "[An Inquest] On Our Lakes and Rivers" (June 1968)
- "Civil liberties: The Crucial Issue" (January 1969)
- "The Public be Damned" (July 1969)
- "Points of Rebellion" (October 1970)
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Members of the Supreme Court of the United States"
.
Supreme Court of the United States
.
Archived
from the original on April 29, 2010
. Retrieved
April 21,
2010
.
- ^
Martin, Andrew D.
"Martin-Quinn Scores"
.
- ^
"The Law: The Court's Uncompromising Libertarian"
.
Time.com
. November 24, 1975. Archived from
the original
on May 5, 2011
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
Ernest Kerr,
Imprint of the Maritimes
, 1959, Boston: Christopher Publishing, p. 83.
- ^
Cushman, Clare (May 22, 2013).
William O. Douglas: 1939?1975 : Sage Knowledge
.
doi
:
10.4135/9781452235356
.
ISBN
9781608718337
.
Archived
from the original on October 19, 2013
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
"Justice William O. Douglas (U.S. National Park Service)"
.
National Park Service
. Retrieved
May 23,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ryerson, James (April 13, 2003).
"Dirty Rotten Hero"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on April 15, 2020
. Retrieved
May 1,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Richard A. Posner,
"The Anti-Hero"
Archived
October 18, 2015, at the
Wayback Machine
,
The New Republic
(February 24, 2003).
- ^
a
b
c
Current Biography 1941
, pp. 233?235
- ^
Whitman, Alden. (1980). "Vigorous Defender of Rights,"
The New York Times
, 20 January 1980, p. 28.
- ^
Phi Beta Kappa Society.
"U.S. Supreme Court Justices"
.
www.pbk.org
. Retrieved
March 9,
2022
.
- ^
Charles Lane,
On Further Review, It's Hard to Bury Douglas's Arlington Claim
Archived
June 11, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine
,
Washington Post
(February 14, 2003).
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Charles Lane,
On Further Review
.
- ^
a
b
Current Biography 1941
, p. 234
- ^
Swain, Robert T.
The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors, 1819?1947, Volume 1
The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. orig. pub. 1946?1948 p. xv.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Murphy, Bruce Allen (2003).
Wild Bill:The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas
. New York: Random House. p.
396
.
ISBN
0394576284
.
- ^
Kai Bird (1992).
The Chairman: John J. McCloy ? The Making of the American Establishment
, p. 64.
- ^
"Lyr Add: Humoresque (various versions)"
.
Mudcat.org
.
Archived
from the original on October 18, 2015
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
Garrow, David J. (March 27, 2003).
"The Tragedy of William O. Douglas"
.
The Nation
.
Archived
from the original on March 27, 2016
. Retrieved
May 1,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Christopher L. Tomlins (2005).
The United States Supreme Court
.
Houghton Mifflin
. pp.
475
?476.
ISBN
978-0-618-32969-4
. Retrieved
October 21,
2008
.
- ^
Christopher L. Tomlins (2005).
The United States Supreme Court
.
Houghton Mifflin
. p.
461
.
ISBN
978-0-618-32969-4
. Retrieved
October 21,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
Buckfire, Lawrence J. (2022).
"Supreme Court Justices' Ages at Appointment"
.
Student Guide: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Facts & Information
. Southfield, MI: Buckfire Law Firm
. Retrieved
May 16,
2022
.
- ^
Ball, Howard & Cooper, Phillip J.,
Of Power and Right
, (1992), pp. 90-93, Oxford University Press
- ^
John Giuffo (November 10, 2005).
"Judge Posner Profiled in Columbia Journalism Review"
.
www.law.uchicago.edu
. University of Chicago Law School. Archived from
the original
on October 26, 2023
. Retrieved
June 3,
2022
.
- ^
Dworkin, Ronald (February 19, 1981).
"Dissent on Douglas"
.
The New York Review of Books
.
Archived
from the original on June 3, 2016
. Retrieved
May 1,
2016
.
- ^
Douglas, William O. (1980).
The Court Years
. Random House. p.
8
.
ISBN
9780394492407
.
- ^
Robertson, Stephen.
"William Douglas"
.
The First Amendment Encyclopedia
. Retrieved
December 24,
2021
.
- ^
Seides, George (1993).
The Great Quotations
. Carol Publishing Group.
ISBN
9780806514185
.
- ^
Douglas, William O. (1980).
The Court Years: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas
. Random House. p. 280.
ISBN
9780394492407
. Retrieved
October 5,
2022
.
- ^
Griswold v. Connecticut
,
381
U.S.
479
(1965)
- ^
Bork, Robert, (1990),
The Tempting of America,
p. 97, Simon & Schuster, New York
- ^
a
b
Currie, David P., (1990),
The Constitution in the Supreme Court, Second Century, 1888-1986
, p. 455, University of Chicago Press
- ^
Martin, Andrew D.
"Martin-Quinn Scores"
.
- ^
Strauss, David (June 7, 2011).
"The Last Liberal Justice?"
.
Democracy
.
- ^
Driver, Justin.
"
"Justice Brennan:Liberal Champion"
"
. The New Republic
. Retrieved
August 5,
2022
.
- ^
Murdoch, Joyce; Price, Deborah (November 15, 2018).
Courting Justice
. Basic Books. p. 122.
ISBN
9780465015146
.
- ^
"Boutilier v. INS"
.
Oyez
. Retrieved
August 3,
2022
.
- ^
Flast v. Cohen
,
392
U.S.
110
(1968)
- ^
Ginsburg,
Reflections of Justice Douglas's First Law Clerk
, 93 Harv. L. Rev. 1403, 1406 (1980).
- ^
"House Move to Impeach Douglas Bogs Down; Sponsor Is Told He Fails to Prove His Case,"
The New York Times,
Wednesday, July 1, 1953, p. 18.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Moses, James L.. 1996. "William O. Douglas and the Vietnam War: Civil Liberties, Presidential Authority, and the 'Political Question.'"
Archived
September 6, 2018, at the
Wayback Machine
Presidential Studies Quarterly
26 (4). [Wiley, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress]: 1019?33.
- ^
Holtzman v. Schlesinger
, 414 U.S. 1316 (1973) (Douglas, J., in chambers) citing
Sarnoff v. Shultz
, 409 U.S. 929;
DaCosta v. Laird
, 405 U. S. 979;
Massachusetts v. Laird
, 400 U. S. 886;
McArthur v. Clifford
, 393 U. S. 1002;
Hart v. United States
, 391 U. S. 956;
Holmes v. United States
, 391 U. S. 936;
Mora v. McNamara
, 389 U. S. 934, 935;
Mitchell v. United States
, 386 U. S. 972.
- ^
a
b
Eugene R. Fidell,
Why Did the Cambodia Bombing Continue?
Archived
March 12, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine
, 13 Green Bag 2D 321 (2010).
- ^
Holtzman v. Schlesinger
, 414 U.S. 1316 (1973) (Douglas, J., in chambers).
- ^
Schlesinger v. Holtzman
, 414 U.S. 1321, 1322 (1973) (Douglas, J., dissenting in chambers).
- ^
William O. Douglas, and Joseph W. Meeker. "Nature’s Constitutional Rights."
The North American Review,
258#1 (1973), pp. 11?14.
online
- ^
a
b
Sierra Club v. Morton
,
405 U.S. 727
, 741?43 (USSC 1972).
- ^
Frederick, John J. (1950).
"Speaking of Books : About Fables and Mountains ... Hogs and Government ... Animals and IQ's"
.
The Rotarian
.
77
(1). Rotary International: 39?40.
Archived
from the original on January 6, 2016
. Retrieved
April 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Associate Justice William O. Douglas ? Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)"
.
Nps.gov
.
Archived
from the original on October 22, 2020
. Retrieved
April 20,
2019
.
- ^
"Ozark Monthly Bulletin"
(PDF)
.
Barefoottraveler.com
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on October 26, 2020
. Retrieved
April 20,
2019
.
- ^
Blevins, Brooks (2001).
Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image
. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 235.
ISBN
0-8078-5342-9
.
Archived
from the original on January 6, 2016
. Retrieved
November 20,
2015
.
- ^
The Ozarks Society newsletters, and books by Kenneth L. Smith.
- ^
Appalachian Trail Long Distance Hikers Association (2009).
Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers' Companion (2009)
(2009 ed.). Harpers Ferry, WV: Appalachian Trail Conservancy. p. 122.
ISBN
978-1-889386-60-7
.
Archived
from the original on January 6, 2016
. Retrieved
November 20,
2015
.
- ^
"SERNEC Home"
.
sernecportal.org
. Retrieved
November 25,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Douglas Trail"
.
National Park Service
.
Justice Douglas was also a strong advocate for outdoor recreation and environmental causes.
- ^
"The Ecologist Plea: 'Save Sunfish Pond'
"
.
The New York Times
. May 14, 1972.
- ^
William O. Douglas,
The Court Years: 1939?1975
.
- ^
a
b
[1]
[
dead link
]
- ^
Simon, James F. (1980).
Independent Journey: The Life of William O. Douglas
(first ed.). New York: Harper & Row. p. 274.
ISBN
0-06-014042-9
.
Archived
from the original on January 6, 2016
. Retrieved
November 20,
2015
.
- ^
"Impeachment Move".
Congressional Quarterly Almanac. 83rd Congress 1st Session ... 1953
. Vol. 9. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly. 1953. pp. 08-311?08-312.
- ^
a
b
c
Kalman, Laura (1990).
Abe Fortas
.
Yale University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-300-04669-4
. Retrieved
October 20,
2008
.
- ^
Gerhardt, Michael J. (2000).
The Federal Impeachment Process
.
University of Chicago Press
.
ISBN
0-226-28956-7
.
- ^
Lohthan, William C. (1991).
The United States Supreme Court: Lawmaking in the Third Branch of Government
.
Prentice Hall
.
ISBN
978-0-13-933623-2
.
- ^
[2]
Archived
September 26, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"(DV) Gerard: Conservatives, Judicial Impeachment, and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas"
.
Dissidentvoice.org
.
Archived
from the original on March 18, 2017
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
Gerhardt, Michael J. (2000).
The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis
. University of Chicago Press. p. 27.
ISBN
978-0226289571
.
Archived
from the original on June 2, 2021
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
Joshua E. Kastenberg, The Campaign to Impeach Justice William O. Douglas: Nixon, Vietnam, and the Conservative Attack on Judicial Independence (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2019), 152-154
- ^
Radcliffe, Donnie (November 17, 1987).
"Laying the Gorbachev Groundwork"
.
The Washington Post
.
Archived
from the original on November 8, 2021
. Retrieved
September 10,
2018
.
- ^
"The Law: Douglas Finally Leaves the Bench".
Time
. November 24, 1975.
- ^
"From Cover-Ups To Secret Plots: The Murky History Of Supreme Justices' Health"
.
WAMU
. Retrieved
May 23,
2024
.
- ^
Appel, Jacob M. (August 22, 2009).
"Anticipating the Incapacitated Justice"
.
Huffington Post
. USA.
Archived
from the original on August 27, 2009
. Retrieved
August 23,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
Ford, Gerald R.,
A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford
, Harper & Row, 1979, p. 334;
ISBN
0-06-011297-2
.
- ^
Woodward, Robert
and
Armstrong, Scott
.
The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court
(1979).
ISBN
978-0-380-52183-8
,
0-380-52183-0
,
978-0-671-24110-0
,
0-671-24110-9
,
0-7432-7402-4
,
978-0-7432-7402-9
.
- ^
Woodward & Armstrong, pp. 480?88, 526.
- ^
Damasio, Antonio.
Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.
Penguin Books, 1994. pp. 68?69.
[
ISBN missing
]
- ^
"Supreme Court Justices William O. Douglas (1898?1980)"
. michaelariens.com. Archived from
the original
on February 27, 2015
. Retrieved
August 8,
2015
.
- ^
William O. Douglas Heritage Trail
Archived
January 20, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine
, Pacific Coast Trail (including map showing where incident occurred),
- ^
a
b
"Supreme Court of the U.S.: #79 ? Associate Justice William O. Douglas Showing 1-28 of 28"
.
Goodreads.com ? The History Book Club
.
Archived
from the original on March 4, 2018
. Retrieved
April 20,
2019
.
- ^
Woodward, Bob; Armstrong, Scott (1979).
The Brethren
.
Simon & Schuster
. p.
367
.
ISBN
9780671241100
.
- ^
"William O. Douglas"
(PDF)
. Niagara Falls Gazette. July 21, 1950. p. 12.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on July 9, 2021
. Retrieved
January 6,
2016
.
- ^
[3]
Archived
March 23, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"The marrying Justice"
.
Newspapers.nl.sg
.
Archived
from the original on December 3, 2013
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
Charns, Alexander (1992).
Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers, and the Supreme Court
. University of Illinois Press.
ISBN
978-0252018718
.
Archived
from the original on November 8, 2021
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
"The Supreme Court: September Song"
.
Time.com
. July 29, 1966. Archived from
the original
on October 7, 2008
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
See
This American Life
Archived
September 7, 2015, at the
Wayback Machine
, Transcript.
- ^
Notable Graves, Supreme Court ? William O. Douglas
Archived
November 28, 2020, at the
Wayback Machine
?
Arlington National Cemetery
- ^
Hoyt, Edwin Palmer
(1979).
William O. Douglas: A Biography
. Minnetonka MN: Olympic Marketing Corp. p. 3.
ISBN
978-0-8397-8598-9
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
Rich, Spencer (January 19, 1980).
"William O. Douglas Dies at 81"
.
Washington Post
. Retrieved
May 18,
2024
.
- ^
"Christensen, George A. (1983)
Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices
, Yearbook"
. Archived from
the original
on September 3, 2005
. Retrieved
November 24,
2013
.
Supreme Court Historical Society
- ^
Christensen, George A.,
Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited
,
Journal of Supreme Court History
, Volume 33 Issue 1, pp. 17?41 (February 19, 2008),
University of Alabama
- ^
"Previous Audubon Medal Awardees"
.
Audubon
. January 9, 2015.
Archived
from the original on December 31, 2018
. Retrieved
July 12,
2020
.
- ^
"Gifford Pinchot National Forest"
.
Fs.fed.us
.
Archived
from the original on April 26, 2011
. Retrieved
April 22,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
[4]
Archived
May 11, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"60 Years Ago, Hike by Justice Douglas Saved the C&O Canal"
.
Georgetowner.com
. March 20, 2014.
Archived
from the original on June 26, 2015
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
"Associate Justice William O. Douglas ? Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)"
.
Nps.gov
.
Archived
from the original on June 21, 2015
. Retrieved
June 21,
2015
.
- ^
"Mountain ? The Journey of Justice Douglas"
. Dramatists Play Service.
Archived
from the original on June 22, 2015
. Retrieved
June 22,
2015
.
- ^
[5]
Archived
December 13, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Drew University Library.
"Playboy (Detailed Inventory)"
(PDF)
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on September 7, 2021
. Retrieved
September 7,
2021
.
- ^
"William O. Douglas. A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress"
(PDF)
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on September 7, 2021
. Retrieved
September 7,
2021
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Abraham, Henry J.,
Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court. 3d. ed.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
ISBN
0-19-506557-3
.
- Ball, Howard, and Phillip J. Cooper.
Of Power and Right: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and America's Constitutional Revolution
(Oxford University Press, 1992).
- Cushman, Clare,
The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies,1789?1995
(2nd ed.) (Supreme Court Historical Society), (Congressional Quarterly Books, 2001)
ISBN
1-56802-126-7
,
978-1-56802-126-3
.
- Duram, James C.
Justice William O. Douglas
(Twayne Publishers, 1981), Literary study of Douglas as a writer.
- Frank, John P.,
The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions
(Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, editors) (Chelsea House Publishers: 1995)
ISBN
0-7910-1377-4
,
978-0-7910-1377-9
.
- Hutchinson, Dennis J. "William O. Douglas." In
The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States,
ed. Kermit L. Hall, (Oxford University Press, 1992) pp. 233?235.
- Martin, Fenton S. and Goehlert, Robert U.,
The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography
, (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1990).
ISBN
0-87187-554-3
.
- Murphy, Bruce Allen.
, Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas
(Random House, 2003)
- "William O Douglas"
.
The Oregon Encyclopedia
.
- Pritchett, C. Herman,
Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court
. (The University of Chicago Press, 1969)
ISBN
978-0-226-68443-7
,
0-226-68443-1
.
- Schwarz, Jordan A.
The New Dealers: Power politics in the age of Roosevelt
(Vintage, 2011) pp 157?176.
online
- Simon, James F.
Independent Journey: The Life of William O. Douglas
(Harper & Row, 1980)
- Urofsky, Melvin I.,
Conflict Among the Brethren: Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas and the Clash of Personalities and Philosophies on the United States Supreme Court
,
Duke Law Journal
(1988): 71?113.
- Urofsky, Melvin I.,
Division and Discord: The Supreme Court under Stone and Vinson, 1941?1953
(University of South Carolina Press, 1997)
ISBN
1-57003-120-7
.
- Urofsky, Melvin I.,
The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary
(New York: Garland Publishing 1994). 590 pp.
ISBN
0-8153-1176-1
,
978-0-8153-1176-8
.
- Wasby, Stephen L. ed.
"He Shall Not Pass This Way Again": The Legacy of Justice William O. Douglas,
(University of Pittsburgh Press for the William O. Douglas Institute, 1990), major collection of essays by experts on his achievements.
Environmentalism
[
edit
]
- Brinkley, Douglas.
Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening
(2022)
excerpt
. chapter 4 on Douglas.
- Caragher, James M. "The Wilderness Ethic of Justice William O. Douglas."
University of Illinois Law Review
(1986): 645+.
online
- Douglas, William O., and Joseph W. Meeker. "Nature’s Constitutional Rights."
The North American Review,
258#1 (1973), pp. 11?14.
online
- Douglas, William O.
Of men and mountains
(1990)
online
, a memoir
- Douglas, William O.
The three hundred year war: A chronicle of ecological disaster
(1972)
online
- Douglas, William O.
My wilderness: the Pacific West
(1960)
online
- Huber, Richard G. "William O. Douglas and the Environment,"
Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review
(1976), 5:209-212
online
- McKeown, M. Margaret.
Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas?Public Advocate and Conservation Champion
(U of Nebraska Press, 2022).
- Sowards, Adam M.
The Environmental Justice: William O. Douglas and American Conservation
Oregon State University Press, 2009).
- Sowards, Adam M.?" 'He's a Natural': Justice William O. Douglas and the American Environmental Tradition" (PhD Dissertation, Arizona State University;?ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, ?2001.?3004138).
- Sowards, Adam M. "Protecting American Lands with Justice William O. Douglas."
The George Wright Forum
32#2 (2015) pp. 165?173.
[6]
.
- Wilkinson, Charles F. "Justice Douglas and the Public Lands." In
"He Shall Not Pass This Way Again": The Legacy of Justice William O. Douglas
, ed. Stephen L. Wasby, (1990) pp 233?248.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
---|
- John Jay
(
1789?1795
,
cases
)
- John Rutledge
(
1795
,
cases
)
- Oliver Ellsworth
(
1796?1800
,
cases
)
- John Marshall
(
1801?1835
,
cases
)
- Roger B. Taney
(
1836?1864
,
cases
)
- Salmon P. Chase
(
1864?1873
,
cases
)
- Morrison Waite
(
1874?1888
,
cases
)
- Melville Fuller
(
1888?1910
,
cases
)
- Edward Douglass White
(
1910?1921
,
cases
)
- William Howard Taft
(
1921?1930
,
cases
)
- Charles Evans Hughes
(
1930?1941
,
cases
)
- Harlan F. Stone
(
1941?1946
,
cases
)
- Fred M. Vinson
(
1946?1953
,
cases
)
- Earl Warren
(
1953?1969
,
cases
)
- Warren E. Burger
(
1969?1986
,
cases
)
- William Rehnquist
(
1986?2005
,
cases
)
- John Roberts
(
2005?present
,
cases
)
| |
|
|
---|
*
Also served as Chief Justice of the United States
| |
|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Academics
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|