William O. Douglas
| William O. Douglas | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
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In office April 15, 1939 – November 12, 1975 |
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| Nominated by | Franklin Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Louis Brandeis |
| Succeeded by | John Paul Stevens |
| Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission | |
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In office August 17, 1937 – April 15, 1939 |
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| President | Franklin Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | James Landis |
| Succeeded by | Jerome Frank |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
William Orville Douglas October 16, 1898 Maine Township, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | January 19, 1980 (aged 81) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Mildred Riddle (1923–1953) Joan Martin (1963–1966) Cathleen Heffernan (1966–1980) |
| Education |
Whitman College (BA) Columbia University (LLB) |
William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) was an American jurist and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. His term, lasting 36 years and 209 days (1939–75), is the longest term in the history of the Supreme Court.
Douglas holds a number of records as a Supreme Court Justice, including the most opinions. He was the 79th person appointed and confirmed to the bench of that court. In 1975 Time magazine called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court".
Douglas was born in 1898 in Maine Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, the son of Julia Bickford (Fisk) and William Douglas, an itinerant Scottish Presbyterian minister from Pictou County, Nova Scotia. His family moved to California, and then to Cleveland, Washington. At age two Douglas suffered through an intestinal colic, which Douglas would claim had been polio. His mother attributed his recovery to a miracle, telling Douglas that one day he would be President of the United States.
His father died in Portland, Oregon, in 1904, when Douglas was six years old. Douglas would later claim his mother had been left destitute. After moving the family from town to town in the West, his mother, with three young children, settled with them in Yakima, Washington. William, like the rest of the Douglas family, worked at odd jobs to earn extra money, and a college education appeared to be unaffordable. He was the valedictorian at Yakima High School and did well enough in school to earn a scholarship to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
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