Douglas, William Orville

Born October 16, 1898, in Maine, MN
Died January 19, 1980, in Bethesda, MD

Federal Judicial Service:
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Nominated by Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 20, 1939, to a seat vacated by Louis D. Brandeis. Confirmed by the Senate on April 4, 1939, and received commission on April 15, 1939. Assumed senior status on November 12, 1975. Service terminated on January 19, 1980, due to death.

Supreme Court Oath:
April 17, 1939

Allotment as Circuit Justice:

Seventh Circuit, April 24, 1939-February 11, 1940
Ninth Circuit, February 12, 1940-November 12, 1975
Tenth Circuit, April 2, 1962-April 15, 1962

Education:
Whitman College, A.B., 1920
Columbia Law School, LL.B., 1925

Professional Career:

Private practice, New York City, 1925-1926
Assistant professor of law, Columbia Law School, 1926-1928
Sterling professor of law, Yale Law School, 1928-1936
Director, Protective Study Committee, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 1934-1936
Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 1936-1939; chairman, 1937-1939

Bibliography

Armstrong, Walter P. “Mr. Justice Douglas on Stare Decisis: A Condensation of the Eighth Cardozo Lecture.” American Bar Association Journal, vol. 35, no. 7 (Jul. 1949): 541-5.

Ball, Howard. “Fighting Justices: Hugo L. Black and William O. Douglas and Supreme Court Conflict.” American Journal of Legal History, vol. 38, no. 1 (Jan. 1994): 1-37.

________ and Phillip J. Cooper. Of Power and Right: Hugo Black, William Douglas, and America’s Constitutional Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Branton, Wiley A. “Justice William O. Douglas.” North Carolina Central Law Journal, vol. 12, no. 2 (Spring 1981): 290-6.

Campbell, Louis III. “How Opinions can Persuade: A Case Study of William O. Douglas.” Federal Bar News & Journal, vol. 29, no. 5 (May 1982): 231-34.

Caragher, James M. “The Wilderness Ethic of Justice William O. Douglas.” University of Illinois Law Review, vol. 1986 (1986): 645-68.

Casper, Gerhard. “Liberal Faith: Some Observations on the Legal Philosophy of Mr. Justice William O. Douglas.” Federal Bar Journal, vol. 22, no. 3 (Summer 1962): 179-94.

Countryman, Vern, ed. Douglas of the Supreme Court. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.

Domnarski, William. The Great Justices, 1941-54: Black, Douglas, Frankfurter, and Jackson in Chambers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Douglas, William O. The Court Years, 1939-1975: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas. New York: Random House, 1980.

________. Go East, Young Man: The Early Years: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas. New York: Random House, 1974.

________. Points of Rebellion. New York: Random House, 1970.

Duram, James C. Justice William O. Douglas. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.

Fairhurst, Mary E. and Andrew T. Braff. “William O. Douglas: The Gadfly of Washington.” Gonzaga Law Review, vol. 40, no. 2 (2004-2005): 259-93.

Feldman, Noah. Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices. New York: Twelve, 2010.

Glancy, Dorothy. “Getting Government of the Backs of People: The Right of Privacy and Freedom of Expression in the Opinions of William O. Douglas.” Santa Clara Law Review, vol. 21, no. 4 (1981): 1047-68.

Hopkirk, John W. “William O. Douglas – His Work in Policing Bankruptcy Proceedings.” Vanderbilt Law Review, vol. 18, no. 2 (Mar. 1965): 663-700.

________. “William O. Douglas, Individualist: A Study of the Development and Application of a Judge’s Attitudes.” Ph.D. Diss., Princeton University, 1958.

Huber, Richard G. “William O. Douglas and the Environment.” Environmental Affairs, vol. 5, no. 2 (Spring 1976): 209-12.

Hulst, Tom R. The Footpaths of Justice William O. Douglas: A Legacy of Place. New York: iUniverse, 2006.

Katz, Jay. “The William O. Douglas Tax Factor: Where Did the Spin Stop and Who was He Looking Out For?” Charlotte Law Review, vol. 3, no. 2 (Winter 2012): 133-216.

McKeever, Robert J. “The Fall and Rise of Judicial Activism in the United States: The Case of William O. Douglas.” Journal of Legal History, vol. 11, no. 3 (Dec. 1990): 437-46.

McKeown, Hon. M. Margaret. Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas—Public Advocate and Conservation Champion. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022.

Moses, James L. “Political Justice: William O. Douglas and the American Presidency.” Ph.D. Diss., Tulane University, 1997.

Murphy, Bruce Allen. Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas. New York: Random House, 2003.

O’Fallon, James M, ed. Nature’s Justice: Writings of William O. Douglas. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2000.

Podva, Monty J. “The Environmental Ethic of Justice William O. Douglas.” EPA Journal, vol. 5, no. 9 (1979): 9-10.

Ray, Laura Krugman. “Autobiography and Opinion: The Romantic Jurisprudence of William O. Douglas.” University of Pittsburgh Law Review, vol. 60, no. 3 (Spring 1999): 707-44.

Rodgers, C. Paul III. “The Antitrust Legacy of Justice William O. Douglas.” Cleveland State Law Review, vol. 56, no. 4 (2008): 895-1002.

Simon, James F. Independent Journey: The Life of William O. Douglas. New York: Penguin Books, 1981.

Smith, Robbin E. William O. Douglas and American Legal Realism: Continuity through Change. Ph.D. Diss., Boston University, 1997.

Sowards, Adam M. The Environmental Justice: William O. Douglas and American Conservation. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University, 2009.

Ulmer, S. Sidney. “Parabolic Support of Civil Liberty Claims: The Case of William O. Douglas.” Journal of Politics, vol. 41, no. 2 (May, 1979): 634-9.

Urofsky, Melvin I. “Conflict among the Brethren: Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas and the Clash of Personalities and Philosophies on the United States Supreme Court.” Duke Law Journal, vol. 71-113.

________. “‘Dear Teacher’: The Correspondence of William O. Douglas and Thomas Reed Powell.” Law and History Review, vol. 7, no. 2 (1989): 331-86.

________. “William O. Douglas and his Clerks.” Western Legal History, vol. 3, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 1990): 1-20.

________. “William O. Douglas as a Common Law Judge.” Duke Law Journal, vol. 41, no. 1 (Sep. 1991): 133-60.

Wang, Jessica. “Neo-Brandeisianism and the New Deal: Adolf A. Berle, Jr., William O. Douglas, and the Problem of Corporate Finance in the 1930s.” Seattle University Law Review, vol. 33, no. 4 (2010): 1221-46.

Wasby, Stephen L., ed. “He Shall Not Pass this Way Again”: The Legacy of William O. Douglas. Pitttsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990.

White, G. Edward. “The Anti-Judge: William O. Douglas and the Ambiguities of Individuality.” Virginia Law Review, vol. 74, no. 1 (Feb. 1988): 17-86.

“Justice William O. Douglas.” Hastings Law Journal, vol. 20, no. 3 (Mar. 1969): 855-910.

Tributes: Yale Law Journal, vol. 73, no. 6 (May 1964): 915-99.

Manuscript Collections

Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
William O. Douglas papers, 1801-1980.
714 linear ft. (633,000 items); finding aid; collection contains correspondence, material relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Supreme Court papers, and miscellaneous lecture notes.

Whitman College and Northwest Archives
Walla Walla, Wash.
William O. Douglas collection, 1920-1980.
20.25 linear ft. (21 boxes); finding aid; collection includes speeches, research materials, correspondence, postcards, forestry management, reports to Congress, invitations, book manuscripts, publications, newspaper clippings, contracts, law practice records, articles and magazines about conservation, correspondence with Len Jansen, and materials collected by Whitman College staff.

Yakima Valley Museum and Historical Association
Yakima, Wash.
William O. Douglas speeches, 1939-1975.
365 items; collection consists of speeches Douglas wrote and delivered.

Oral History

Douglas, William O. "William O. Douglas." Interview conducted on November 9, 1967, by John F. Stewart. John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts, 1967. Transcript, 39 pages.

Douglas, William O. "William O. Douglas (Robert F. Kennedy Oral History Project)." Interviews conducted on November 13 and December 2, 1969, by Roberta W. Greene. John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts, 1969. Audiotape, 1 hour, 15 minutes; transcript, 19 pages.

Douglas, William O. "Interview with Associate Justice William O. Douglas." Interviews conducted between December 20, 1961, and December 10, 1963, by Walter F. Murphy. Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1981. Transcript.

Douglas, William O. "Look Here: William O. Douglas." Interview conducted by Martin Agronsky. NBC Television Network, 1957. Videotape, 29 minutes.

Douglas, William O. "Interview." Interview conducted on October 22, 1964, by Sidney Fine and Robert M. Warner. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1964. Transcript, 15 pages.

Federal Judicial Center

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Douglas, William Orville