Douglas, William O. (1898–1980)

Early Years

Douglas was born in Minnesota in 1898, but for most of his early years, he lived near Yakima, Washington. His father died when Douglas was only 6 years old, and as a child Douglas had to overcome illness and poverty. He suffered from polio, and for therapy he often took long hikes in the mountains, which he frequently claimed was the basis of his passion for the outdoors and the environment. In the case of Sierra[Page 255]Club v. Morton (1972, dissent), Douglas asserted that “trees” have standing to sue.

Douglas worked his way through high school and college and was a schoolteacher for a short time before enrolling at Columbia University Law School. Despite having to work at various jobs and as a tutor, he graduated as one of the top students in his class. After graduation from law school, Douglas briefly worked at a Wall Street law firm. Restless with law practice, he left to teach at Columbia Law School. He then went on to become one of the youngest professors to hold a chair at Yale Law School, where he specialized in business and corporate law.

A staunch New Dealer, Douglas was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and subsequently was elevated by Roosevelt to be SEC chair. In 1944, Roosevelt considered the possibility of choosing Douglas as his vice presidential running mate before finally selecting Harry S Truman.

On the Bench

In 1939, Roosevelt appointed Douglas to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the retirement of Justice Louis Brandeis. At the age of 41, he was one of the youngest justices in Supreme Court history. During Douglas's long career on the Supreme Court, he became one of its most liberal members and gained a reputation as a great civil libertarian, particularly in the area of free speech.

During the Joseph McCarthy “red scare” era, he filed dissents in cases such as Dennis v. United States (1951), where the Supreme Court upheld convictions of American Communist Party members for conspiring to teach and advocate overthrow of the government. Douglas, along with fellow Justice Hugo Black, often took a so-called absolutist view of the First Amendment, interpreting it to mean that “no law” abridging the freedom of speech or press literally meant that these constitutional guarantees were absolute and could not be infringed upon or violated by governmental action.

During the 1970s, Douglas's alleged conflicts of interest, his supposedly extreme positions on issues such as obscenity, and his unconventional lifestyle led Republicans in Congress such as House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford to call for his impeachment. (Douglas was divorced and remarried three times. His last wife was 22 and he was 66 when they married.) Some felt that the move to impeach Justice Douglas was motivated by Republican retaliation for the Senate's rejection of President Nixon's first two nominees to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the resignation of Justice Abe Fortas. The impeachment resolution died in committee, but perhaps it sent a political message to Congress and the Supreme Court.

...