William O. Douglas

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

On the bench

In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis resigned from the Supreme Court, and Roosevelt nominated Douglas as his replacement. Douglas later admitted that this had been a great surprise - Roosevelt had summoned him to an "important meeting", and Douglas feared that he was to be named as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 62 to 4. Douglas was sworn into office on April 17, 1939.

Related Topics:
1939 - Louis D. Brandeis - Federal Communications Commission - April 17

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Judicial philosophy

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), affirming the conviction of the leader of the U.S. Communist Party.

Related Topics:
First Amendment - Hugo Black - Terminiello v. City of Chicago - 1949 - 1952 - Communist Party

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Over the course of his career Douglas grew to become a leading advocate of individual rights against the government generally. For example, Douglas wrote the lead opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut, finding a "right to privacy" in the "penumbras" of the first ten amendments of the Bill of Rights. This went too far for his old ally Black, who dissented in Griswold.

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The Rosenberg case

On June 16, 1953, Douglas granted a temporary stay of execution to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the two alleged Soviet spies who had been convicted of selling the plans for the atomic bomb to the Russians. The basis for the stay was that the Rosenbergs had been sentenced to die by Judge Irving Kaufman without the consent of the jury. While this was permissible under the Espionage Act of 1917, which the Rosenbergs were tried under, a later law, the Atomic Secrets Act of 1946, held that only the jury could pronounce the death penalty. Since, at the time the stay was granted, the Supreme Court was out of session, this meant that the Rosenbergs could expect to wait at least six months before the case was heard.

Related Topics:
June 16 - 1953 - Ethel and Julius Rosenberg - Soviet - Atomic bomb - Irving Kaufman - Jury - Espionage Act of 1917 - Atomic Secrets Act of 1946 - Death penalty

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When Attorney General James P. McGranery heard about the stay, however, he immediately took his objection to Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, who took the unprecedented step of reconvening the Supreme Court before the appointed date. On June 19, the Court ruled that the crime in question fell under the 1917 law, not the latter. The Court set aside Douglas's stay. Douglas, who had already left for vacation in Oregon, did not attend the proceedings.

Related Topics:
Attorney General - James P. McGranery - Chief Justice - Fred M. Vinson - June 19 - 1917 - Oregon

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Due to opposition to his decision, Douglas briefly faced impeachment proceedings in Congress. Attempts to remove him from the Court were unsuccessful, however, due to the fact that, at the time, the Democratic Party, of which Douglas was a member, held the majority.

Related Topics:
Impeachment - Democratic Party

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Douglas and the counter-culture: Later years on the bench

During the 1960s, Douglas became a spokesman for liberal causes, writing a book published in 1969 entitled Points of Rebellion and controversially authoring a piece for "hippie" publication Evergreen magazine that was inadvertently placed next to pornographic material. Douglas also became a key supporter of the fledgling environmental movement, serving on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club from 1960 to 1962 and writing prolifically on his love of the outdoors. He eloquently dissented from the Supreme Court's decision in Sierra Club v. Morton denying the environmental group standing to sue.

Related Topics:
1960s - 1969 - Sierra Club - 1960 - 1962

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Although there is no doubt Douglas fully believed in his causes, his plethoric speaking and publishing schedule were also motivated by dire financial circumstances. Never a wealthy man, Douglas became straitjacketed by a bitter divorce settlement with his first wife and then sank deeper as settlements with his second and third wives essentially took his entire Supreme Court salary. As a result, Douglas took extraordinary steps to supplement his income, which besides publishing included becoming president of the Parvin Foundation.

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While Douglas's efforts on behalf of the Parvin Foundation were in fact legitimate, his ties with the Foundation (which had been financed by the sale of the infamous Flamingo Hotel by casino financier and Foundation founder Albert Parvin) proved too much for then-House minority leader Gerald R. Ford to pass up. A number of additional factors came into play; besides being long disgusted with Douglas's lifestyle, Ford also had seen Douglas protege Abe Fortas resign because of ties with a similar foundation and had a political axe to grind as the Senate had failed to confirm Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to succeed Fortas on the Court. Thus, in April 1970 he moved to impeach Douglas, the first major modern era attempt to impeach a Supreme Court Justice. Thanks to careful maneuvering by House Judiciary Chairman Emanuel Celler and the general lack of proof that Douglas had done anything criminal despite efforts by John N. Mitchell and the Nixon administration to gather evidence to the contrary, the impeachment effort fizzled out. This effort and the struggles over the Fortas, Haynesworth, and Carswell nominations marked the beginning of the modern era of more partisan battles over Supreme Court nominees.

Related Topics:
Gerald R. Ford - Abe Fortas - Clement Haynsworth - G. Harrold Carswell - 1970 - Emanuel Celler - John N. Mitchell

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