Ex-Supreme dies

Liberal lion Stevens, 99, served 35 yrs.

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens — who retired after 35 years on the bench in 2010, making him the third-longest-serving justice — died Tuesday. He was 99.

The US Supreme Court said in a statement that Stevens died at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., of complications from a stroke he suffered on Monday.

“[Stevens] brought to our bench an inimitable blend of kindness, humility, wisdom and independence,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the statement. “His unrelenting commitment to justice has left us a better nation.”

Despite being appointed by a Republican, President Gerald Ford in 1975, Stevens (inset) left the bench a liberal icon.

He voted to uphold affirmative action after initially being a fierce critic of it. He also aligned with the liberal justices on abortion rights and gay rights.

Stevens wrote the primary dissenting opinion in a 2008 case in which the Supreme Court ruled the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms — unconnected with service in a militia.

But he may be best known for his scathing dissent in Bush v. Gore, the controversial decision that stopped the recount of Florida ballots and allowed George W. Bush to win the 2000 presidential election.

Born in Chicago in 1920, Stevens served in the US Navy during World War II and graduated from Northwestern University School of Law.

Stevens, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Wiley Blount Rutledge in the 1940s and co-founded a Chicago law firm, was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by Richard Nixon in 1970. Five years later, he replaced Justice William O. Douglas on the Supreme Court.

Stevens was succeeded by Justice Elena Kagan.

He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

His first and second wives and two of his children preceded him in death.