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William O. DouglasASSOCIATE JUSTICE

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Early Life

• Born October 16, 1898

• Attended Columbia Law School

• Taught Law at Yale University

• Third Chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• Died January 19, 1980

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Supreme Court

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Associate Justice

• 79th Person to Serve on the Court

• Nominated by Franklin Roosevelt

• Replaced Louis Brandies

• Served From April 19th, 1939 – November 12th, 1975

• His term of 36 years and 209 days is the longest of any Justice on the Supreme Court

• Was succeeded by John Paul Stevens

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Judicial Philosophy• Was considered a liberal on the

court.

• Believed in “incorporation”, that the Bill of Rights applied to the states through the liberty clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Had a “literalist” view of the First Amendment; there should be no laws restricting free speech.

• Adherent to “legal realism”. A belief that interpreting law should include moral and political realities of the time.

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Landmark Cases

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Terminiello v. Chicago (1949)

• Arthur Terminiello, a Catholic Priest, violated a “breach of peace” ordinance in Chicago

• Douglas wrote the majority opinion in the 5-4 decision overturning Terminiello’s conviction.

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Yates v. United States (1957)

• Involved the prosecution of 14 low level Communist Party members under the Smith Act• The Smith Act (Alien Registration Act of 1940) was passed to punish individuals

who would overthrow the government.

• Douglas concurred with Hugo Black in the 6-1 decision overturning the 14 party members convictions

• The ruling changed the way the Smith Act was enforced • Before the ruling members of any party that at one time advocated overthrowing

the government could be imprisoned.• After the ruling violating the Smith Act required encouraging or inciting an

overthrow of the government.

• Along with the case Watkins V United States, Yates effectively ended the second red scare.

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Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

• First case in which the Warren Court applied the Bill of Rights in a criminal case to the individual states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Dollree Mapp was arrested after police officers used a fake warrant to search her house and found obscene material and arrester her.

• The court decision overturned her conviction by applying the Fourth Amendment to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment

• The ruling also prohibited the use of evidence in state courts that was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

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Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

• Case concerning a Connecticut law banning contraception

• The ruling contained multiple opinions overturning the Connecticut law.

• Douglas’ majority opinion was one of his most controversial. In his opinion Douglas stated that while there was no explicit right to privacy in the Constitution the first nine amendments implied a right to privacy from the government.

• This case was later cited in the Roe v. Wade opinions.

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Other Information

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Impeachment Attempts

• Two attempts to impeach William Douglass

• The first involved the Rosenberg case in 1953• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for trading state

secrets to the Soviet Union.• Douglas granted a stay of execution because the Rosenbergs were

sentenced without a trial• The outrage during the second Red Scare lead to a resolution of

impeachment by Represenative William Wheeler of Georgia

• The second impeachment attempt happened in 1970 and involved Douglas’ financial ties to a private foundation.

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Other Notable Cases

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) – School Segregation.

• Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) – Right to counsel applied to states.

• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) – Libel/First Amendment

• Miranda v. Arizona (1966) – Notification of rights during criminal proceedings.

• Furman v. Georgia (1972) – Capital punishment

• Roe v. Wade (1973) – Abortion laws.

• United States v. Nixon (1974) – Executive Privilege

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The End