William O. Douglas

William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 ? January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice.

Nicknames

During his time on the Supreme Court, Douglas picked up a number of nicknames, which were bestowed upon him by both his admirers and his detractors. The most common epithet was "Wild Bill," which he received for his independent and unpredictable stances and cowboy-style mannerisms, although many of the latter were faked for the consumption of the press.

Related Topics:
Nicknames - Cowboy

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Later in his career, Douglas also became known as "The Great Dissenter" and "The Lone Ranger." The former referred to the record number of dissenting opinions that he had drafted over the course of his career, while the latter was an allusion to the number of times that his had been the lone dissenting vote in a case, which made up well over half of his estimated three hundred dissenting opinions.

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