FAREWELL TO RETIRED JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS | A JUDGE’S JUDGE & THE LAST OF THE GREATEST GENERATION
July 17, 2019
A FAREWELL TO JPS
|Yesterday news broke that retired Supreme Court JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS passed away at the age of 99. He joined the court as a Republican antitrust lawyer, and after nearly 35 years on the bench, he eventually became “the outspoken leader of the court’s liberal wing.” Linda Greenhouse with The New York Times makes note of how the justice came into his own writing, “Justice Stevens spent much of his service on the court in the shadow of more readily definable colleagues when he emerged as a central figure during a crucial period of the court’s history: the last phase of CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST’S tenure and the early years under CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN G. ROBERTS JR.” She says that as pressing social issues came before SCOTUS, Stevens “was as surprised as anyone to find himself not only taking the liberal side but also becoming its ardent champion.”
A JUDGE'S JUDGE
|NPR’s Nina Totenberg says JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS was a “maverick” on the bench who dissented from the court’s rulings more frequently than any other justice during his long tenure. He wrote over 400 majority opinions for the Supreme Court on “almost every issue imaginable,” she says. “Often called a judge’s judge, Stevens was something of a throwback to a less rancorous era, when, as one writer put it, law and politics were a noble pursuit, not a blood sport.”
THE MAN BEFORE THE JUSTICE
|With the help of Robert Barnes and Emily Langer, Charles Lanes wrote The Washington Post’s obituary on JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS. Born in Chicago to a privileged family, Stevens ultimately had a “turbulent” youth when his family’s businesses went bankrupt during the Depression and important members of his family were indicted on charges of financial misconduct. He’d go on to join the Navy as an intelligence officer the day before Pearl Harbor was attacked. “He would later joke that his commissioning had provoked the Japanese to strike, because they took it as a sign of American desperation,” Lane writes. It wasn’t until after the war that Stevens went to law school and began the part of his life that would ultimately bring him to the United States Supreme Court.
THE TRADEMARK BOW TIE
|Richard Wolf with USA Today reports on the response to the death of JPS which was confirmed yesterday by a press release from the Supreme Court. In the release, CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS said of JUSTICE STEVENS, “He brought to our bench an inimitable blend of kindness, humility, wisdom, and independence. His unrelenting commitment to justice has left us a better nation. We extend our deepest condolences to his children Elizabeth and Susan, and to his extended family.” Wolf also notes that Stevens was known for his trademark bow tie and gentle mien belied by a competitive edge that turned up in his opinions and dissents. “Stevens’ brand of conservatism – a term he insisted still applied until his retirement in 2010 – all but disappeared during his long and distinguished career,” Wolf writes. “In lengthy interviews with The New Yorker and The New York Times near the end of his career, Stevens insisted that he had not changed his stripes but had simply withstood the court’s transformation from liberal to conservative.”
DIDN'T SCARE SO EASY
|“His legal reasoning was often described as unpredictable or idiosyncratic, especially in his early years on the court. He was a prolific writer of separate opinions laying out his own thinking, whether he agreed or disagreed with the majority’s ruling. Yet Stevens didn’t consider his methods novel. He tended toward a case-by-case approach, avoided sweeping judicial philosophies, and stayed mindful of precedent.” That’s Mark Sherman and Connie Cass with The Associated Press also reviewing the long life and career of JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS who they note never shied away from a lone dissent, or from much of anything really. “He took an unusually courteous tone with lawyers arguing their cases, but he was no pushover. After his fellow justices fired off questions, Stevens would politely weigh in. ‘May I ask a question?’ he’d ask gently, then quickly slice to the weakest point of a lawyer’s argument.”
THE LAST OF THE GREATEST
|Adam Liptak with The New York Times makes note of five ways in which JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS made his mark on SCOTUS. The list: 1. He was the last justice from the “greatest generation.” 2. He had a change of heart on the death penalty. 3. He notably dissented in two significant cases. 4. He was chosen for his ability, not his ideology. 5. He reflected on the court long after his retirement. Learn more about each of those important points and why they matter for the Supreme Court today.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
|A former law clerk for JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS, Diane Marie Amann writes in The Washington Post that the late justice leaves behind a legacy that we must not forget. She reflects on the impact he had on her personal life, and how his “quiet kindness” is what she’ll treasure most. And on his professional impact she says, “All of Stevens’s writings, as well as the mild-mannered role model he embodied, remain as a rich legacy, one from which every generation of American public servants would do well to borrow. I know that I shall continue to do so.”
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