William O. Douglas
William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898 - January 19, 1980) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. He was a champion of individual rights. He was a strict constructionist, viewing the Constitution as a document that conveyed limited rights to the government.He was born in Maine, Minnesota. His family moved to California, and then Cleveland, Washington. His father died there in 1904, when he was only six years old. His mother moved the family to Yakima, Washington.
He attended Whitman College, where he earned money during the summers working in the fields alongside migrant farmworkers. After graduating he spent 1920 and 1921 teaching school. However, he tired of this and decided to pursue a legal career.
He gained admission to Columbia Law School. He made his was from Yakima to New York the hard way. He found work as a freight hand handling a herd of sheep that took him to Chicago, and traveled from Chicago to New York as a hobo, hopping trains.
He did well at Columbia. He graduated second in his class in 1925. He first took a job with a top Wall Street law firm, but did not like it. After one year, he moved back to Yakima to practice closer to home. However, he returned to teach at Columbia within a year. He quickly jumped to join the faculty of Yale Law School. At Yale, he became an expert on commercial litigation and bankruptcy.
In 1934, he left Yale to join the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here he met Franklin D. Roosevelt and became an adviser and friend to the President. In 1936, he was named chairman of the SEC.
In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis resigned from the court. Roosevelt nominated Douglas to replace him. Douglas was suprised. He recalled later that when Roosevelt summoned him to the important meeting, he was expecting to be named the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 62 to 4.
He almost left the bench in 1944. President Roosevelt informed the Democratic Convention that there were two acceptable people to run as his vice-president: Harry Truman and William Douglas.
Appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was sworn into office on April 17, 1939. He retired on November 12, 1975. By the time of his retirement, he had written more Supreme Court opinions than any one else, before or since. At 36 years, Douglas served on the Supreme Court bench longer than anyone else.
He was frequently married and divorced. He was married to Mildred Riddle from 1923 to 1953, Mercedes Hester Davidson from 1954 to 1963, Joan Martin from 1963 to 1965, and Cathleen Hefferman from 1965 until his death.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, near the grave of former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.