132-604: Abraham Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1969. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee , Fortas graduated from Rhodes College and Yale Law School . He later became a law professor at Yale Law School and then an advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . Fortas worked at
264-582: A Sterling Professor at Yale. In 1934, Douglas left Yale after President Franklin Roosevelt nominated him to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 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
396-422: A cloture motion to end the debate was made. The 45–43 vote in favor of cloture demonstrated that the nomination was in trouble. It was 14 votes short of the two-thirds majority (59 votes) needed to cut off debate and force a vote on the nomination. (35 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to end debate, while 24 Republicans and 19 Democrats voted to continue it.) Although the vote suggested to Fortas's supporters that
528-490: A Jewish chief justice swore in the next president." The National Socialist White People's Party undertook a phone campaign that summer, condemning Fortas as a "despicable Jew with a ' red ' record that smells to high heaven". Such attacks were soundly condemned by most senators. Even so, the White House began alerting the press to growing antisemitic opposition against Fortas, and used the issue to garner support for him in
660-537: A controversial subject at the time. In 1953, this expertise led to his appointment to represent the indigent Monte W. Durham, whose insanity defense had been rejected at trial two years earlier, before a U.S. Court of Appeals . Durham's defense had been denied because the District Court had applied the M'Naghten rules , requiring that the defense prove the accused did not know the difference between right and wrong for an insanity plea to be accepted. Adopted by
792-598: A conversation with Douglas during a party at Martin Agronsky 's house. 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." Douglas now outspokenly argued the war was illegal, dissenting whenever the Court passed on an opportunity to hear such claims. In 1968 Douglas issued an order blocking
924-602: 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 . He continued: Inanimate objects are sometimes parties in litigation. A ship has
1056-475: A force in other developments in the law. Douglas was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa , 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
1188-579: A hearing the next day. 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." 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
1320-667: A hike to save Sunfish Pond on the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey , Douglas was accompanied by more than a thousand people. He said: "It's a vital element in the need to save some of our wilderness from the encroachment of civilization." 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
1452-479: 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." Douglas has been widely characterized as a civil libertarian . 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
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#17327725572021584-413: A justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted . Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding the cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however, the chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise,
1716-400: A justice himself, he felt it best to let the lawyers give their arguments uninterrupted. During his time on the Court, Fortas led a revolution in children's rights and juvenile justice , broadly extending the Court's logic on due process rights and procedure to legal minors and overturning the existing paradigm of parens patriae in which the state had usurped the parental role. Writing
1848-534: 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. He voted to strike down the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia , argued that the environment should be granted legal personhood , tried to declare
1980-454: A landmark case involving the right to counsel . Nominated by Johnson to the Supreme Court in 1965, Fortas was confirmed by the Senate, and maintained a close working relationship with the president. As a justice, Fortas wrote several landmark opinions in cases such as In re Gault and Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District . In 1968, Johnson tried to elevate Fortas to
2112-427: 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,
2244-529: A representative. In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the Court, and Roosevelt nominated Douglas as his replacement on March 20. Douglas was Brandeis's personal choice as a successor. 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
2376-552: A result of the Wolfson affair, revising circumstances under which judges should not accept outside income. Wolfson was under investigation for securities violations at the time, and it was alleged that he expected that his arrangement with Fortas would help him stave off criminal charges or help him secure a presidential pardon . He asked Fortas to help him secure a pardon from Johnson, which Fortas claimed that he did not do. Fortas recused himself from Wolfson's case when it came before
2508-536: A scholarship to attend Southwestern at Memphis, a liberal arts college now called Rhodes College . During his college years, Fortas supported himself by working as a shoe salesman and as a performing violinist, while also giving violin lessons to local children. Initially, Fortas considered studying music , before settling on English and political science . He graduated first in his class in 1930. Fortas earned scholarships from both Harvard Law School and Yale Law School but ultimately decided to attend Yale, becoming
2640-505: 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
2772-421: A set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of the active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute ( 28 U.S.C. § 294 ) provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on
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#17327725572022904-505: A slim majority favored confirmation, it effectively derailed the nomination. In light of the slim prospect for a positive outcome, Johnson withdrew Fortas's nomination. News accounts at the time consistently described the Senate floor debate as a filibuster intended to prevent the nomination from reaching the floor, where a simple majority vote would have been enough for confirmation. Republican Senator John Cornyn asserted in 2003, however, that several senators who opposed Fortas asserted at
3036-575: A successful tax lawyer. They had no children, and after his appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States , they lived at 3210 R Street NW in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Just like his days in Memphis, Fortas was an amateur musician who played the violin in a string quartet , called the "N Street Strictly-no-refunds String Quartet" on Sunday evenings in Washington. Fortas
3168-599: A vote he later regretted, 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
3300-457: 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
3432-487: 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,
3564-410: 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
3696-500: Is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant. There are currently eight associate justices on the Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are: An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute ( 28 U.S.C. § 371 ) may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep
3828-411: Is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of the two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas . By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice
3960-578: Is no necessary contradiction between these two views." 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
4092-506: Is often cited as the U.S. Supreme Court 's most liberal justice ever. 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." He is the longest-serving justice in history , having served for 36 years and 209 days. After an itinerant childhood, Douglas attended Whitman College on
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4224-531: 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." Brennan once stated that Douglas was one of only "two geniuses" he had met in his life (the other being Posner). In general, legal scholars have noted that Douglas's judicial style
4356-491: 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. Douglas was a lifelong mountaineer . In his autobiographical Of Men and Mountains (1950), Douglas discusses his close childhood connections with nature. In
4488-764: 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
4620-568: The Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C. In 1937, he was made assistant director of the public utilities division at the SEC. Throughout this period, Fortas commuted between New Haven and Washington in order to fulfill his responsibilities both to Yale and to the government. In 1935, Fortas married Carolyn E. Agger, who became
4752-508: The Bill of Rights have penumbras , formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance." 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." Conservative Judge Robert Bork had no objection to
4884-518: The British House of Lords in 1843, generations before the origins of modern psychiatry, this test was still in common use in American courts over a century later. The effect of this standard was to exclude psychiatric and psychological testimony almost entirely from the legal process. In a critical turning point for American criminal law, the Court of Appeals accepted Fortas's call to abandon
5016-655: The Department of the Interior under President Franklin D. Roosevelt , and was appointed by President Harry S. Truman to delegations that helped set up the United Nations in 1945. In 1948, Fortas represented Lyndon B. Johnson in the dispute over the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination , and he formed close ties with Johnson. Fortas also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the U.S. Supreme Court , in
5148-657: The Judiciary Act of 1869 . Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate , appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges , which ends only when
5280-677: 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. 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. Douglas became president of
5412-418: The U.S. Constitution does not dictate how a state must choose its governor: "Our business is not to write the laws to fit the day. Our task is to interpret the Constitution." Fortas was critical of justices (he specifically cited Thurgood Marshall ) who frequently broke into attorneys' arguments to ask questions. As an attorney arguing before the Court, he had resented intrusions by the justices and so as
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5544-591: The U.S. Senate from Texas. Johnson won the Democratic primary by only 87 votes. His opponent, former Governor of Texas Coke R. Stevenson , persuaded a federal judge to issue an order taking Johnson's name off the general election ballot while the primary results were being contested. There were serious allegations of corruption in the voting process, including 200 votes for Johnson that had been cast in alphabetical order. Johnson asked Fortas for help, and Fortas persuaded Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to overturn
5676-608: The University of Chicago Law School called Douglas's Griswold opinion "one of the most hypocritical opinions in the history of the Court." 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
5808-589: 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. Douglas was notable as a public pre- Stonewall supporter of gay rights. 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
5940-477: The violin , and was known in Memphis as "Fiddlin' Abe Fortas". Fortas learned to play the violin from local Catholic nuns at the St. Patrick's School on Linden, a block from his house on Pontotoc Street; he then studied chamber music with the leader of a local trio. Fortas attended South Side High School where, at the age of sixteen, he graduated second in his class in 1926. After graduating from high school, Fortas won
6072-513: The " Jewish seat ," as his three immediate predecessors—Goldberg, plus Felix Frankfurter and Benjamin Cardozo before him—were also Jewish. Fortas continued to serve as an adviser to Johnson after becoming an associate justice. He attended White House staff meetings, advising the president on judicial nominations and discussing private Supreme Court deliberations with him. In 1966, he substantially edited an initial version of Johnson's State of
6204-403: The "Fortas Film Festival", and the association of Fortas with some of the films' strip-teases and especially the rape or homosexual sex depicted in one film, Flaming Creatures , was effective in tarnishing Fortas's image and disheartening his supporters. It was not until September 17 that the Judiciary Committee took a final vote on the nomination, reporting it favorably by an 11 to 6 vote to
6336-713: 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
6468-514: 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. 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
6600-588: The Court went nowhere. 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
6732-476: The Court. In May 1969, Life magazine chronicled Fortas's tangled relations with Wolfson. The revelation engendered calls for Fortas to be impeached , and motivated Richard Nixon , who knew that Fortas's resignation would enable the appointment of a more conservative Justice, to order the Justice Department to investigate Fortas. Nixon was unsure if an investigation or prosecution was legal, but
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#17327725572026864-414: The Court. The two had been friends since the 1930s, and Black helped convince Fortas's wife, Carolyn Agger, to consent to his appointment to the Supreme Court. However, once both men were on the Court, they disagreed about the manner in which the Constitution should be interpreted, finding themselves on opposing sides of the Court's opinions most of the time. In 1968, a Warren clerk called their feud "one of
6996-569: 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
7128-461: The M'Naghten Rule and to allow for testimony and evidence regarding the defendant's mental state. In 1963, Fortas represented Clarence Earl Gideon in his appeal before the Supreme Court. Gideon had been convicted by a Florida court of breaking into a pool hall. He could not afford a lawyer, and none was provided for him when he asked for one at trial. In its landmark ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright ,
7260-557: 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 protégé Abe Fortas was forced to resign because of ties to a similar foundation. Fortas would later say that he "resigned to save Douglas," thinking that
7392-579: 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
7524-452: The Senate. Fortas himself called the effort to defeat his nomination, "anti-Negro, anti-liberal, anti-civil rights, [and] anti-Semitic". Fortas's acceptance of $ 15,000 for nine speaking engagements at American University 's Washington College of Law became a source of controversy. The money had come, not from the university, but from private sources that represented business interests connected to 40 companies; Senator Strom Thurmond raised
7656-468: The Senate. He underwent four days of questioning about his legal career, judicial philosophy, and his relationship with President Johnson. Judiciary Committee chairman James Eastland , a Mississippi segregationist , told Johnson he "had never seen so much feeling against a man as against Fortas". Antisemitism likely played a role in the confirmation battle. Afterward, Eastland reportedly said "After [Thurgood] Marshall, I could not go back to Mississippi if
7788-599: The Supreme Court held for Gideon, ruling that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants unable to afford their own. Fortas's former Yale Law School professor, longtime friend and future Supreme Court colleague, William O. Douglas praised his argument as "probably the best single legal argument" in Douglas's time on the court. On July 28, 1965, President Johnson nominated Fortas as an associate justice of
7920-635: 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. In May 1962, 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
8052-418: The Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice: William O. Douglas 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
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#17327725572028184-577: 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." 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,
8316-486: The Supreme Court) and had switched the names to suggest that Truman was Roosevelt's real choice. 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 ,
8448-431: The U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before the Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it
8580-577: The Union Address. In 1968, Fortas wrote a book called Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience . Fortas's law clerks included future Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Walter B. Slocombe and Martha A. Field , a scholar of constitutional law, family law , and bioethics . Fortas had mostly good working relations with his fellow justices, although they worried that he talked to President Johnson too much. Fortas clashed with his fellow Associate Justice Hugo Black during much of his time on
8712-532: The United States , to succeed Earl Warren , who had submitted his resignation effective with the confirmation of a successor. Anticipating that conservative members of the Senate would have concerns about Fortas's liberal opinions, Johnson simultaneously announced that he would fill the vacancy created by Fortas's elevation with United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Homer Thornberry of Texas. The propriety of
8844-581: The United States Supreme Court , to succeed Arthur Goldberg , who had resigned to become the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations following the death of Adlai Stevenson . Johnson persuaded Goldberg to leave the Court for the U.N. in part because he wanted Fortas on the Court. Johnson thought that some of his " Great Society " reforms could be ruled unconstitutional by the Court and felt that Fortas would let him know if that
8976-595: 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
9108-406: 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." Prof. David P. Currie of
9240-464: The coordinated resignation-nomination on the eve of the November presidential election was called into question by Republican candidate Richard Nixon and the media. By the time the Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the nomination on July 11, bipartisan opposition to the nomination (among Republicans and Southern Democrats ) had become well organized. Fortas was the first sitting associate justice, nominated for chief justice, ever to appear before
9372-495: The court should stay out of politics. Douglas did not highly value judicial consistency or stare decisis when deciding cases. "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,
9504-593: The court to accept the appeal of Little Rock Central High School teacher Sue Epperson who had challenged Arkansas's anti-evolution law , with the support of the state teachers union. Epperson had won the case, but the Arkansas Supreme Court had overturned the ruling. Although the Court agreed quickly after hearing the case that the Arkansas ruling should be reversed, there was no consensus as to why, most Justices favoring fairly narrow grounds. Fortas
9636-469: The creation of a presidential commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . When it became clear that multiple investigations were gearing up simultaneously at the city, state, and federal levels, Fortas changed his mind and advised Johnson to establish the Warren Commission . Fortas was known in Washington circles to have a serious interest in psychiatry , still
9768-548: The death zone." The U.S. military ignored Douglas's order. Six hours later the eight other justices reconvened by telephone for a special term and unanimously overturned Douglas's ruling. Douglas was highly innovative in legal theory. 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
9900-431: The decision in the case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), involving two high school students and one junior high school student, who had been suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War . Fortas wrote that neither "students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate". In 1968, Fortas persuaded
10032-418: 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." Judge Richard A. Posner , who
10164-621: The film Gideon's Trumpet (1980). Leaving Yale in 1939, Fortas served as general counsel of the Public Works Administration and then as Undersecretary of the Interior in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. While he was working at the U.S. Department of the Interior , the Secretary of the Interior , Harold L. Ickes , introduced him to a young congressman from Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson . In October 1943, Fortas
10296-463: The firm in 1947; in 1965, following the appointment of Fortas to the Supreme Court, the firm was renamed as Arnold & Porter . For many years, it has remained one of Washington's most influential law firms, and today is among the most profitable law firms in the world . In the 1948 United States Senate election in Texas , Lyndon Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination for one of the two seats in
10428-587: The first draft. 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." Douglas frequently disagreed with the other justices, dissenting in almost 40% of cases, more than half of the time writing only for himself. 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." Ultimately, Douglas believed that
10560-415: The full Senate. Thurmond promised to filibuster , and when the senate debate began on September 25, Fortas's opponents restated every criticism they had earlier directed against Fortas, especially with regard to the issue of obscenity. Johnson remained resolute in his support for his nominee, saying to an aide: "We won't withdraw the nomination. I won't do that to Abe." The debate lasted for four days, until
10692-420: The governor if no one wins a majority in the general election, was at odds with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution : "If the voting right is to mean anything, it certainly must be protected against the possibility that the victory will go to the loser." In this case, Maddox trailed Callaway by about 3,000 votes. Justice Black took the strict constructionist view that
10824-734: 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. 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
10956-409: The idea that cases involving these companies might come to the Court, and Fortas might not be objective. While the fee itself was legal, the size of the fee raised much concern about the Court's insulation from private interests, especially as the speaking fee had been funded by former legal clients and partners of Fortas. The $ 15,000 represented more than 40 percent of a Supreme Court justice's salary at
11088-691: The issues here." In 1967, Fortas and Douglas dissented in the 5–4 decision Fortson v. Morris , which cleared the path for the Georgia State Legislature to choose the Governor of Georgia in the deadlocked Georgia gubernatorial election of 1966 between the Democrat Lester Maddox and the Republican Howard Callaway . Fortas said that the State Constitution of 1824, allowing the legislature to choose
11220-437: 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?" Truman selected Senator Alben W. Barkley and the two won the election . Political opponents made two unsuccessful attempts to remove Douglas from the Supreme Court. On June 17, 1953, U.S. Representative William M. Wheeler of Georgia, infuriated by Douglas's brief stay of execution in
11352-516: The justices with whom he had served. Fortas was born the youngest of five children to Orthodox Jewish immigrants Woolfe Fortas and Rachel "Ray" Berzansky Fortas in Memphis, Tennessee . Woolfe was born in Russia, and Rachel was born in Lithuania. Woolfe was a cabinetmaker, and the couple operated a store together. Fortas acquired a lifelong love for music from his father, who encouraged his playing
11484-466: 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 . Douglas
11616-477: 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. In August 1923, Douglas traveled to La Grande, Oregon , to marry Mildred Riddle, whom he had known in Yakima. Douglas graduated second in his class at Columbia in 1925. During
11748-475: 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
11880-522: 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. 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. Douglas
12012-456: The majority decision in Kent v. United States (1966), the first Supreme Court case that evaluated a juvenile court procedure, Fortas suggested that the existing system might be "the worst of both worlds." At that time, the state was held to have a paternal interest in the child rather than a prosecutorial one, a concept that dispensed with the obligation to provide a child accused of a crime with
12144-416: 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 ,
12276-581: The maximum punishment he could have received was a $ 50.00 fine or two months in jail. Fortas used the case to launch a ferocious attack on the juvenile justice system and parens patriae . His majority opinion was a landmark, extending the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of right to sufficient notice, right to counsel , right to confrontation of witnesses , and right against self-incrimination to certain juvenile proceedings. Two years later, Fortas wrote another landmark in students rights with
12408-487: The most basic animosities of the Court". Fortas's best relationship was with William O. Douglas , his former law professor at Yale. Fortas was also close to Associate Justice William J. Brennan and Chief Justice Earl Warren . Brennan's offices were in the chambers next to those of Fortas. Fortas's wife recalled that Fortas "loved Warren". Fortas called fellow associate justice John Marshall Harlan II "one of my dearest friends, although we usually are on opposite sides of
12540-439: 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. 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
12672-642: The navy, but was reappointed in January 1944. In 1945, he was appointed by President Harry S. Truman as an advisor to the U.S. delegation during the organizational meeting of the United Nations (UN) in San Francisco , and at the 1946 General Assembly meeting in London . In 1946, after leaving government service, Fortas founded a law firm, Arnold & Fortas, with Thurman Arnold . Former Federal Communications Commission commissioner Paul A. Porter joined
12804-585: The opportunity to make a defense. Still, courts were empowered to decide, in the interests of the child, to have the child incarcerated for lengthy periods or otherwise severely punished. Fortas elaborated on his critique the following year in the case of In re Gault (1967). The case concerned a 15-year-old who had been sentenced to almost six years (until his 21st birthday) in the Arizona State Industrial School for making an obscene phone call to his neighbor. Had he been an adult,
12936-732: 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). "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." "There
13068-601: 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
13200-549: The position of Chief Justice of the United States , but that nomination faced a filibuster and was withdrawn. Fortas later resigned from the Court after a controversy involving his acceptance of $ 20,000 from financier Louis Wolfson while Wolfson was being investigated for insider trading . The Justice Department investigated Fortas at the behest of President Richard Nixon . Attorney General John N. Mitchell pressured Fortas into resigning. Following his resignation, Fortas returned to private practice, occasionally appearing before
13332-564: 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 Antonín Dvořák 's Humoresque #7. Robert Maynard Hutchins described Douglas as "the most outstanding law professor in the nation." 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
13464-484: 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 . At Whitman, Douglas became a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He worked at various jobs while attending school, including as
13596-414: 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: 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
13728-643: The ruling. Johnson then won the general election and became a U.S. Senator . During the Red Scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fortas came to widespread notice as the defense attorney for Owen Lattimore . In 1950, Fortas often clashed with Senator Joseph McCarthy when representing Lattimore before the Tydings Committee , and also before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee . Fortas initially opposed
13860-400: 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. 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
13992-401: The senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that the other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($ 298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $ 285,400 per year for an associate justice). Associate justices have seniority in order of the date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice
14124-641: The shipment of Army reservists to Vietnam, before the eight other justices unanimously reversed him. 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 . The Court was in recess for the summer but the Congresswoman reapplied, this time to Douglas. Douglas met with Holtzman's ACLU lawyers at his home in Goose Prairie, Washington , and promised them
14256-479: 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. Because of widespread opposition to his decision, Douglas briefly faced impeachment proceedings in Congress but attempts to remove him from
14388-562: 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 . Douglas was hired at Cravath by attorney John J. McCloy , who would later become the chairman of the Board of Chase Manhattan Bank. Douglas quit the Cravath firm after four months. After one year, he moved back to Yakima, but soon regretted
14520-434: The term “psychopathic personality” was unconstitutionally vague, and even if it were not, not all gays and lesbians are psychopaths. 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
14652-496: The time they were not conducting a perpetual filibuster and were not trying to prevent a final up-or-down vote from occurring. Public debate occasionally still occurs over whether Fortas would have been confirmed in a simple majority vote. The Fortas nomination is seen as a harbinger of later filibusters of judicial nominees. Richard Nixon won the 1968 presidential election , and Johnson did not make another nomination before his term as president expired on January 20, 1969. Earl Warren
14784-426: The time, and was seven times what any other American University seminar leader had ever been paid. Thurmond also hammered at the issue of pornography . He condemned Fortas for voting with the majority to overturn obscenity laws dealing with pornographic films . Thurmond obtained some of the films in question and played them in the Senate building while the hearings were out of session. These showings became known as
14916-420: 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
15048-644: The war and the army's requirements for more soldiers and officers. He traveled 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. 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. Six months later, Douglas's funds were running out. The appointments office at
15180-474: The youngest law student there at 20 years old. He became editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and graduated cum laude and second in the class of 1933. One of his professors, William O. Douglas , was impressed with Fortas, and Douglas arranged for Fortas to stay at Yale to become an assistant professor of law. Shortly thereafter, Fortas took on a series of government positions, including with
15312-507: 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
15444-510: 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. 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
15576-476: 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 , although a biographer reveals that it
15708-550: 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. Douglas was often at odds with fellow justice Felix Frankfurter , who believed in judicial restraint and thought
15840-481: Was convinced by then-Assistant Attorney General and future Chief Justice William Rehnquist that it would be. Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , other than the chief justice of the United States . The number of associate justices is eight, as set by
15972-529: Was friends with well-known musicians such as Rudolf Serkin , Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals . Fortas was a good friend of the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico , Luis Muñoz Marín , calling him "a spectacularly great figure". Fortas visited the island often, frequently lobbied for the island's interests in Congress, participated in drafting the Constitution of Puerto Rico , and gave legal advice to Marín's administration whenever requested. The Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer portrayed Fortas in
16104-607: Was granted a leave of absence from the Department of Interior to enlist in the United States Navy for World War II . Assigned to Naval Training Station Sampson , New York for his initial training, in December 1943 he was honorably discharged as the result of an arrested case of ocular tuberculosis that caused doctors to deem him medically unfit. He had resigned from his position at the Interior department while in
16236-485: 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. 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
16368-580: Was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by the whole Court. There are currently three living retired associate justices: David Souter , retired June 29, 2009; Anthony Kennedy , retired July 31, 2018; and Stephen Breyer , retired June 30, 2022. Souter has served on panels of the First Circuit Courts of Appeals following his retirement; Kennedy and Breyer have not performed any judicial duties since retiring. Since
16500-617: Was impossible to save enough money by teaching and I said to hell with it." 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 . That fall, he joined the Student Army Training Corps at Whitman as a private . He served from October to December, and was honorably discharged because the Armistice of November 11, 1918 ended
16632-534: Was intestinal colic. His mother attributed his recovery to a miracle, telling Douglas that one day he would be President of the United States . His father died in Portland, Oregon in 1904, when Douglas was six years old. Douglas later claimed his mother had been left destitute. After moving the family from town to town in the West, his mother, with three young children, settled in Yakima, Washington . William, like
16764-559: 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
16896-400: Was succeeded as chief justice by Warren Burger , who was sworn into office on June 23, 1969. Fortas remained an associate justice, but in 1969, a new scandal arose. Fortas had accepted a US $ 20,000 (equivalent to $ 166,000 in 2023) retainer from the family foundation of Wall Street financier Louis Wolfson , a friend and former client, in January 1966. In return for unspecified advice, it
17028-602: Was the architect and the author of the broader landmark majority opinion that emerged in Epperson v. Arkansas , banning religiously based creation narratives from public school science curricula. Fortas believed in an expanded executive branch and a less powerful legislative branch. He wrote: "The enormous growth of presidential power from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson was a necessary and an inevitable adaptation of our constitutional system to national needs." On June 26, 1968, Johnson nominated Fortas as Chief Justice of
17160-565: Was to happen. The nomination was given a favorable recommendation by the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks later, following a one-day public hearing. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 11, 1965, and took the judicial oath of office on October 4, 1965. His appointment ensured the continuation of the Warren Court 's liberal majority. The seat Fortas occupied on the Court had come to be informally known as
17292-517: Was to pay Fortas $ 20,000 a year for the rest of Fortas's life (and then pay his widow for the rest of her life). However, in order to avoid apparent impropriety, Fortas returned the money the same year and received no further payments. Fortas was not unique in receiving this type of funding and other Justices had similar arrangements. William O. Douglas , Fortas's mentor, likewise received funding from casino magnate Albert Parvin through his own foundation. The American Bar Association revamped its rules as
17424-401: 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
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