Douglas, William O.

William O. Douglas (1898–1980), the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court, sat on the Court from 1939 to 1975. He was one of the Court’s most controversial members as well as one of its most passionate defenders of individual freedoms and First Amendment rights.

Douglas was born on October 16, 1898, in Maine, Minnesota, but his family moved to the West Coast when he was very young. After his father’s death in 1904, the family settled in Yakima, Washington. Douglas was valedictorian of his high school class, which earned him a scholarship to attend Whitman College. After graduation, he made a brief attempt at teaching before attending Columbia University Law School, from which he graduated in 1925. Finding that a career as a practicing lawyer did not suit him, Douglas joined the faculty at Columbia and then at Yale Law School, where he taught commercial law. In 1936 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the new Securities and Exchange Commission; he became its chair in 1937.

On March 20, 1939, Roosevelt nominated Douglas to the Supreme Court as an associate justice to replace Justice Louis D. Brandeis, who had retired. The Senate confirmed the appointment by a 62-4 vote, and the forty-year-old Douglas was sworn in on April 17, 1939, becoming one of the youngest justices to join the Court. By his own admission, however, he was unhappy on the bench. Although he served as a justice for thirty-six years, he aspired to the presidency. He sought the Democratic nomination for the vice presidency in 1944 and was bitter when Sen. Harry S. Truman was chosen instead (and then became president upon Roosevelt’s death in 1945). Another brief, failed attempt in 1948 marked the end of his presidential dreams.

Douglas’s tenure on the Court proved to be as controversial as it was long. A maverick professionally and personally, he was nicknamed “Wild Bill.” As a justice, Douglas was an unusually visible figure whose passionate advocacy made him a lightning rod for criticism. He made numerous public appearances and wrote many books and articles supporting liberal causes, especially civil liberties. An avid outdoorsman, he worked tirelessly for the environmental movement. He drew criticism when he blocked the pending execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for giving atomic and military secrets to the Soviet Union and, later, when he upheld a lower court order that would have blocked funding for the Vietnam War. In each case, he issued his order and promptly left Washington, forcing the other justices to overrule him in absentia. The House of Representatives made three short-lived attempts to impeach him. Douglas’s personal life also was equally controversial. He married four times (progressively younger women) and divorced three of his wives. While quiet affairs were not unknown among justices, [Page 400] Douglas’s womanizing was common knowledge. He also had a tendency to exaggerate.

As a justice, Douglas was a passionate civil libertarian. He believed that the Constitution rests upon fundamental and transcendent natural rights that limit government. Although he never seriously developed this theory, it is evident in his authorship of the Court’s decisions in Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942) and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), both of which establish basic rights— to marriage, procreation, and privacy—not found in a literal reading of the Constitution.

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