Former Supreme Court justice Stevens dies at 99
John Paul Stevens, who became the third-longestserving justice on the Supreme Court before his retirement in 2010, died Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 99.
The cause was complications from a stroke that he suffered Tuesday, according to an announcement from the Supreme Court. The only justices who served longer were William O. Douglas, whom Stevens replaced in 1975, and Stephen J. Field, a nominee of President Abraham Lincoln who served for much of the late 19th century.
During his 35-year tenure, Stevens left his stamp on nearly every area of the law, writing the court’s opinions in landmark cases on government regulation, the death penalty, criminal law, Stevens intellectual property and civil liberties.
Stevens also spoke for the court when it held presidents accountable under the law, writing the 1997 decision that required President Bill Clinton to face Paula Jones’ sexual harassment suit, and the 2006 opinion that barred President George W. Bush from holding military trials for prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base without congressional authorization.
But it was in his frequent dissenting opinions that Stevens set forth a view of the law that seemed increasingly — but not automatically — liberal as the years went by and as the court itself shifted right.
A strong proponent of federal power, Stevens sharply criticized the limitations Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and his fellow conservatives put on Congress’s power to define and remedy violations of federal law by the states.
In Bush v. Gore, the 2000 election case that helped George W. Bush win the presidency, Stevens lamented in dissent that the five Republican justices who backed Bush would “lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land.”
In 2004, when the court, citing technical reasons, dismissed the plea of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla, who was being held incomunicado as an enemy combatant, Stevens blasted the majority for ducking issues “of profound importance.”
“If this Nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny,” he wrote.
Stevens’ reference to the flag harked back to the 1989 dissent in which the decorated Navy veteran of World War II joined Rehnquist and other conservatives in dissenting from a ruling that recognized a First Amendment right to burn the American flag.
“The ideas of liberty and equality have been an irresistible force in motivating leaders like Patrick Henry, Susan B. Anthony, and Abraham Lincoln, schoolteachers like Nathan Hale and Booker T. Washington, the Philippine Scouts who fought at Bataan, and the soldiers who scaled the bluff at Omaha Beach,” Stevens wrote in that case. “If those ideas are worth fighting for — and our history demonstrates that they are — it cannot be true that the flag that uniquely symbolizes their power is not itself worthy of protection from unnecessary desecration.”
John Paul Stevens was born in Chicago on April 20, 1920, the youngest of four sons. His mother was a high school English teacher. His grandfather, James W. Stevens, was the founder of the Illinois Life Insurance Co. and owned the Lasalle Hotel, which Justice Stevens’ father, Ernest, managed.
In 1927, the family opened The Stevens Hotel in Chicago, billed as the largest hotel in the world at the time. Stevens enjoyed a privileged childhood: He attended private schools and met celebrities such as aviators Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart at the hotel.
Stevens graduated from the University of Chicago in 1941 and spent World War II at Pearl Harbor, working as a signals intelligence officer.
After the war, Stevens attended Northwestern University’s law school on the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1947. He made top grades and Prof. W. Willard Wirtz described him as “undoubtedly the most admired, and at the same time, the best liked man in school.”
At Wirtz’s urging, Supreme Court Justice Wiley B. Rutledge hired Stevens as a law clerk for the court’s 1947-1948 term.
After his clerkship, Stevens practiced law in Chicago, developing a specialty in antitrust law.
His first marriage, to Elizabeth Sheeren, with whom he had four children, ended in divorce. In 1979, he married Maryan Simon.
In 1969, Stevens was chosen as counsel to a special commission investigating bribery allegations against two justices of the Illinois Supreme Court. His investigation ultimately resulted in the justices’ resignation and propelled Stevens to statewide fame.
President Richard M. Nixon appointed Stevens to the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in November 1970.
Five years later, with the support of a Chicago friend, then-attorney General Edward Levi, Stevens received President Gerald R. Ford’s nomination to replace the retiring Douglas on the Supreme Court. He was confirmed by the Senate 98-0 and took the oath of office on Dec. 19, 1975.