William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas was an American jurist, lawyer, university teacher, and travel writer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Born on October 16, 1898, in Maine Township, Douglas attended A.C. Davis High School before going on to study at Whitman College and subsequently Columbia Law School. After working as a lawyer and university teacher, he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, confirmed at the age of 40.
Douglas served as an associate justice from 1939 to 1975, a tenure of 36 years and 209 days that stands as the longest in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. During that period he was known for strong progressive and civil libertarian views and has often been cited as the most liberal justice in the Court's history. His activities extended beyond the bench: he also worked as a travel writer and was involved in trade unionism. In recognition of work that touched on environmental and literary concerns, he received several honors, among them the Audubon Medal, the Sierra Club John Muir Award, the George Polk Award, and an honorary membership from the American Library Association.
Douglas died on January 19, 1980, in Bethesda. His tenure on the Court, defined by its record-setting length and its consistent alignment with progressive and civil libertarian principles, remains the biographical fact most closely associated with his career in American law.
Quotes by William O. Douglas
William O. Douglas's insights on:
God made the wilderness for man and all other creatures to use, to adore, but not to destroy.
I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.
Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience...that hissed yesterday may applaud today even for the same performance.
The critical point is that the Constitution places the right of silence beyond the reach of government.
As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of darkness.
We who come this way are merely short-term tenants. Our power in wilderness terms is only the power to destroy, not to create. Those who oppose wilderness values today may have sons and daughters who will honor wilderness values tomorrow. Our responsibility as life tenants is to make certain that there are wilderness values to honor after we have gone.
I do not envy those whose introduction to nature was lush meadows, lakes, and swamps where life abounds. The desert hills of Yakima had a poverty that sharpened perception.
One who comes to the Court must come to adore, not to protest. That’s the new gloss on the 1st Amendment.