William Orville Douglas (16 October 1898-19 January 1980) was an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 15 April 1939 to 12 November 1975, succeeding Louis Brandeis and preceding John Paul Stevens. Douglas was the second youngest Supreme Court appointee and the longest serving justice in United States history, and he was known as one of the most colorful and controversial justices due to his outspoken liberal views. During his tenure as Justice, Douglas was a strong opponent of the Vietnam War and an ardent advocate for environmentalism, and he was among those seriously considered to be Franklin D. Roosevelt's vice-presidential pick for the 1944 election.
Biography[]
William Orville Douglas was born in Maine Township, Minnesota, United States in 1898 to a poor family. Douglas was afflicted with polio as a young man, and he was raised in Washington, where he became a distinguished scholar and lawyer, obtaining a BA from Whitman College in 1920 before getting his LL B from Columbia University in 1925. He served as Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1937 to 1939 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1939. On the Court, the four-times married Douglas was concerned with personal freedom, civil liberties, and the regulation of business during wartime. He faced calls for his impeachment when he temporarily stayed the Rosenberg executions in 1953, and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford again called for his impeachment in 1970 because of his marital and political behavior, but he survived until 1975 when he was paralyzed by a stroke and forced to resign. He cultivated a persona as an activist defender of the weak and lived to see his name given to a national park in his beloved Washington State.