William Orville Douglas

William Orville Douglas (1898-1980), American jurist and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1939-1975).

Douglas was born in Maine, Minnesota, on October 16, 1898, and was educated at Whitman College and Columbia University. Admitted to the New York state bar in 1926, Douglas taught law at Columbia and Yale universities until 1934. From 1934 to 1939 he served on various federal regulatory commissions. In 1939 he was nominated by President Franklin Roosevelt to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He retired in 1975, having served on the Court more than 36 years, longer than any other justice. A liberal on social and economic questions and an internationalist and champion of civil rights, Douglas was drawn into many public controversies.

The Court opinions that show Douglas's basic attitudes most explicitly include his supporting (1962) the Supreme Court ban on prayers in public schools; defining (1965) the right of privacy as implied in the U.S. Constitution; dissenting (1968) from a majority opinion upholding a federal statute making the burning of a draft card a crime; and explaining (1970) his lone dissent from an opinion upholding a New York State statute exempting church-owned property from real estate taxes.

In 1970 a resolution was offered in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for an investigation preliminary to impeachment of Douglas, alleging conflict of interest and promotion of rebellion through his writings, citing in particular Points of Rebellion (1970). He retired from the bench in 1975 and died in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1980.

The more than 30 books written by Douglas, reflecting his interest in such divergent subjects as world affairs, conservation, and mountain climbing, include Of Men and Mountains (1950), The Bible and the Schools (1966), and Towards a Global Federalism (1968).