Remembering John Paul Stevens, 1920-2019
We are sad to mark the passing of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens earlier this week at age 99. He was the third longest serving justice at the time of his retirement in June 2010, just under 35 years after President Ford appointed him to the Supreme Court.
Born in Chicago, Stevens graduated from the University of Chicago in 1941. He served in the Navy during World War II as an intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater. After the war he attended Northwestern University School of Law and graduated first in his class. Stevens then served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge before entering private practice. He worked for law firms in the Chicago area, including one he helped form, for many years, dealing mostly with litigation and antitrust law. Additionally, he taught law classes part time and gained experience serving as counsel on Federal committees.
Stevens became a United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in October 1970. He served in that capacity until November 1975 when President Ford nominated him to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice William O. Douglass. “Judge Stevens is held in the highest esteem by his colleagues in the legal profession and the Judiciary and has had an outstanding career in the practice and the teaching of law as well as on the Federal Bench,” President Ford said in his nomination remarks. “I am confident that he will bring both professional and personal qualities of the highest order to the Supreme Court.”
The Senate quickly confirmed Stevens with a vote of 98-0 and he took his seat on the bench on December 19, 1975. Although he was registered as a Republican when he was appointed, over time he became viewed as part of the liberal wing of the Supreme Court. President Ford never regretted nominating Stevens. “He has served his nation well, at all times carrying out his judicial duties with dignity, intellect, and without partisan political concerns. Justice Stevens has made me, and our fellow citizens, proud of my three decade old decision to appoint him to the Supreme Court,” President Ford wrote in a letter honoring Justice Stevens in 2005. Stevens received a copy of the letter, which he reportedly displayed in his Supreme Court chambers.
Images: President Gerald Ford, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and John Paul Stevens at the U.S. Supreme Court Building for the Swearing-in of Stevens as an Associate Justice, 12/19/1975 (National Archives Identifier 6926435)
Letter from President Gerald R. Ford to Dean William Michael Treanor regarding Justice John Paul Stevens, 30 Years on the Supreme Court, 9/21/2005, from the Ford Post Presidential Office Files, Box A544, folder “Correspondence File, 2005 [To-Tu]”
Letter from Justice John Paul Stevens to President Gerald R. Ford, 10/11/2005, from the Gerald and Betty Ford Special Materials, Box A10, folder “Stevens, John Paul”
The Voting Right Act – Signed 50 Years Ago Today
On August 6, 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. For historical perspective, the LBJ Library has collected related photographs, videos, and a telephone conversation. All are in the public domain.
On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - the map that determines which states must get federal permission before they change their voting laws.
The ruling, which was a 5-4 decision, leaves the future of the law deeply uncertain because it will be up to a sharply divided Congress to redraw the map, if it can agree on one at all.
The Voting Rights Act requires nine states with a history of discrimination at the polls, mostly in the South, to get approval from the Justice Department or a special panel of judges before they change their voting laws.
In 2006, the law was renewed, but the map still uses election data from 1972, to determine who is covered. Some jurisdictions, including the Alabama county that brought the case, complained that racial bias in voting no longer exists.
More – The Impact of the Voting Right Act from the LBJ Library
Images:
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act as Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders look on. 8/6/65
President Lyndon B. Johnson at the speaker’s podium addressing a Joint Session of Congress urging the passage of the Voting Rights Act. 3/15/65
President Lyndon B. Johnson hands Senator Robert F. Kennedy a pen from the signing. 8/6/65
President Lyndon B. Johnson speaking before signing the Voting Rights Act. Remarks inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda. 8/6/65
What was FDR’s controversial “Court Packing” plan?
In November 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed to reorganize the federal judiciary by adding a new justice each time a justice reached age seventy and failed to retire. In this manner, the influence of older justices, including a number of conservatives, could be superseded by younger Roosevelt appointees supportive of the New Deal.
FDR’s “Court Packing Plan” was a response to a Supreme Court that was increasingly unwilling to support New Deal legislation. Upon announcement, it was widely opposed by the public, the press, and Congress. However, the Supreme Court did reverse course and began to uphold New Deal legislation.
On this day in 1937, the U.S. Senate rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.
-More SCOTUS History from the FDR Library
Images: 1937 Supreme Court photo. L to R Standing: Owen J. Roberts, Pierce Butler, Harlan Fiske Stone, Benjamin Cardozo; L to R Sitting: Louis D. Brandeis, Willis VanDevanter, Charles Evans Hughes, Hames McReynolds, George Sutherland.
A page from FDR’s reading copy of the Fireside Chat announcing the Supreme Court reorganization plan. 3/9/37.
Newly released and unedited video shows Richard Nixon speaking candidly about his resignation.
Forty years ago this week, Richard Nixon resigned from the Presidency. The Nixon Library is releasing footage of the 37th President chronicling his final days in the White House, recorded in 1983.
The in depth and inside story begins with President Nixon recalling July 23, 1974, the day he learned that three pivotal members of the House Judiciary Committee were going to vote for his impeachment.
“I knew that we could not survive,” Nixon says. “However, when I got back to Washington, in my usual methodical way–people think it’s methodical and I guess it is–I decided I should put down the pros and cons of what options I had.”
Then came the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the President had to turn over 64 White House tape recordings sought by the Watergate Special Prosecutor.
Among them was tape from June 23, 1972, the so-called “smoking gun.”
Referring to the impact of that tape, Nixon said,
“This was the final blow, the final nail in the coffin.”
“A President Resigns” will play continuously in the Nixon Library Theater from August 5-10 and available online at nixonfoundation.org and nixonlibrary.gov.
United States v. Nixon
Today the Nixon Library begins a new series—Road to Resignation—which highlights President Nixon’s last few days in office.
On this day, July 24, 1974, Chief Justice Warren Burger announced the verdict of the Supreme Court in United States v. Nixon. It ruled that President Nixon’s “generalized interest in confidentiality” was not grounds for the crushing of a subpoena seeking the release of the tapes of his recorded conversations relating to the Watergate affair.
The vote was 8-0: Justice William Rehnquist, a former Nixon administration official, had recused himself. The Watergate Tapes were released as a result.
More:
- Follow the final days of Nixon’s Presidency here.
- Listen to key moments compiled by the Nixon White House Tapes Team here – Richard Nixon Resigns the Presidency.
Photo: U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 1973. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Betty Ford Fields Questions on Women’s Rights, Premarital Sex, Breast Cancer, Drugs, and Anything Controversial – Today in 1975.
Morley Safer’s interviewed Betty Ford for the CBS news program “60 Minutes.” They taped the interview in the White House Solarium on July 21, 1975.
The “60 Minutes” segment marked Mrs. Ford’s first extensive, exclusive TV interview. Safer questioned her on a number of topics including her experiences as a politician’s wife, openness about her breast cancer, and support for women’s rights, particularly the Equal Rights Amendment.
Safer noted that unlike many political wives, for Betty Ford “the higher your husband’s gotten, the more really controversial things have been said.” This interview would be no exception. She called the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize abortion “a great, great decision,” and discussed premarital sex and the possibility of her children using drugs.
After the segment aired on August 10 the White House received a deluge of negative comments regarding Mrs. Ford’s position on these issues. Public mail ran 2 to 1 against Mrs. Ford, although more positive comments came in over time. In the long run her approval rating increased after the controversy died down.
According to Sheila Weidenfeld, Mrs. Ford’s press secretary, the First Lady later sent Safer an autographed picture inscribed, “If there are any questions you forgot to ask – I’m grateful.”
-from the Ford Library
Source: facebook.com
June 13, 1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. Marshall is the first African American to serve as Supreme Court Justice.
Read more about Justice Marshall and this historic appointment here.
(via ourpresidents)
Source: research.archives.gov
The “Court Packing” Plan – On This Day in 1937, FDR Proposes to Reorganize the Supreme Court
In November 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed to reorganize the federal judiciary by adding a new justice each time a justice reached age seventy and failed to retire. In this manner, the influence of older justices, including a number of conservatives, could be superseded by younger Roosevelt appointees supportive of the New Deal.
FDR’s “Court Packing Plan” was a response to a Supreme Court that was increasingly unwilling to support New Deal legislation. Upon announcement, it was widely opposed by the public, the press, and Congress. However, the Supreme Court did reverse course and began to uphold New Deal legislation. Read More at the Presidential Timeline
-from the FDR Library
Images: 1937 Supreme Court photo. L to R Standing: Owen J. Roberts, Pierce Butler, Harlan Fiske Stone, Benjamin Cardozo; L to R Sitting: Louis D. Brandeis, Willis VanDevanter, Charles Evans Hughes, Hames McReynolds, George Sutherland.
A page from FDR’s reading copy of the Fireside Chat announcing the Supreme Court reorganization plan. 3/9/37.
William Rehnquist being sworn in as Chief Justice by Warren Burger in the East Room. From left to right: Antonin Scalia, Maureen Scalia, William Rehnquist, Natalie Rehnquist, Warren Burger and President Reagan. 9/26/86.
-from the Reagan Library
Today in history: 32 years ago, Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman to be sworn in as Supreme Court Justice.
President Ronald Reagan had nominated O'Connor to the Court one month earlier on August 19, 1981.
Photo: Sandra Day O'Connor being sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. Her husband John O'Connor looks on. 9/25/81. U.S. Supreme Court.
-from the Reagan Library
More on Sandra Day O'Connor from the Center for Legislative Archives
