By Michael F. Duggan
It is a favorite theme of this blog: although we live in a time of ideological division, there is an unspoken consensus in the Establishment left, right, and “center.” We live in a time that despises mavericks in public office, and now the last maverick of the Third Branch is gone. If there were two ways of seeing a case or a constitutional question, Stevens would think of a third, fourth, and fifth way that nobody had ever thought of before. And then he would convince others he was right.
A native of Chicago, he witnessed at the age of twelve Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” home run, and had the framed scorecard to prove it. Stevens attended the University of Chicago and majored in English. One of his professors was Norman Maclean, who would later write A River Runs Through It.
At the urging of the university’s dean, Stevens entered the United States Navy the day before the Pearl Harbor attack. He would serve in the communications intelligence section (Op-20-G), and received the Bronze Star for his contribution. When he retired from public service in 2010, he was one of the last WWII veterans working for the U.S. Government (the only others that I know of who were still serving at the time of his retirement were representatives Ron Dingell and Ralph Hall, and Senators Daniel Inouye, Daniel Kahikina, and Frank Lautenberg).
After the war he attended the Northwestern University Law School on the G.I. Bill where he achieved the highest GPA in the school’s history. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge during the October 1947 Term. He went on to a successful legal practice and was appointed to serve on the bench of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1970. He married twice and had four children.
In late 1975 Stevens was nominated by President Ford to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the retirement of William O. Douglas (the seat previously occupied by Louis Brandeis). Relative to the progressives of the Warren and early Burger Courts (Warren, Black, Douglas, Brennan, Marshall), he was regarded to be a moderate. By the time he retired 34 years, 192 days later, he was considered to be the leader of the Court’s progressive wing (it is likely that Stevens did not change so much as did the American political landscape and perceptions of the liberal-conservative spectrum).
At the age of 90, he was the second oldest Justice to retire from the High Court’s bench (he could have easily beaten the record held by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who had retired when a few months older). He wrote three books over the age of 90, his autobiography was issued only a month or two ago. He was the third longest-serving justice in U.S. history after his predecessor, William O. Douglas, and Stephen Field.
Stevens brought to oral argument a keen analytical mind, a deep and profound humanity, good humor, unfailing courtesy, and a perennial bow tie. A progressive Republican, his death marks the extinction of a noble political genera. He is one of those rare people whose passing makes the world seem less rational; it was demonstrably better with him in it and seems less hopeful without him. Although it is still early, and although he was in many respects a standalone figure, his historical reputation is secure and it is safe to call him a great jurist. Without a doubt, he led a great life and we are all better off because of it.