John Paul Stevens
The justice was a study in Democratic values
The death of retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens at 99 is no tragedy. Justice Stevens lived a long and incredibly productive life — he published his most recent book this year.
But his death is one more sign of what we are losing in American public life. A pessimist might say we have lost one of the last true gentlemen of our legal and political realms.
Justice Stevens’ life was a study in democratic values.
First, he was a servant leader. He got into public life, as a corporate lawyer in Chicago, when he was drafted to head a commission investigating corruption. He never sought power or the limelight but always tried to contribute, to make things better.
After leaving the court, he devoted himself to book writing and becoming a public intellectual for the law. And all of his books were about something — they had a thesis and substantial subject matter. They were not collections of speeches or vanity publications.
John Paul Stevens was unfailingly thoughtful and reflective. He pondered and worried over his judicial opinions and re- examined his premises. This may sound like a small matter, but our public discourse is increasingly thoughtless — a matter of chain knee- jerk reactions. When
Jusice Stevens spoke you listened, because he thought, and thought hard, before he wrote and spoke.
He was, consequently, willing and able to change his mind. And he did, about many legal and social issues. An open society depends on this — the willingness to change our minds, whether it is about gays serving in the military, or gun control, or expanding Social Security, or eliminating nuclear weapons.
Justice Stevens was humble and accessible. He wrote for the layman. He spoke to anyone, about virtually anything. There was not a whiff of the elitist to him.
He was deeply, deeply devoted to the republic. He loved the law. But he loved the country even more. He enlisted in the Navy the day before Pearl Harbor and was awarded the Bronze Star.
Finally, he was civilized. He dressed well. He respected the arts. He honored knowledge and history. In our loud, crass times, this was a man who did not raise his voice.
W. H. Auden wrote:
“For every day they die/ among us, those who were doing us some good,/ who knew it was never enough but/ hoped to improve a little by living.”
But, no, not every day. Men like John Paul Stevens are rare, all too increasingly rare.