Judge Richard Posner on a leading "light" of the Warren Court and Roe:
I met justice William Douglas, the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, when I was clerking for Justice William Brennan. Douglas struck me as cold and brusque but charismatic--the most charismatic judge (well, the only charismatic judge) on the Court. Little did I know that this elderly gentleman (he was sixty-four when I was a law clerk) was having sex with his soon-to-be third wife in his Supreme Court office, that he was being stalked by his justifiably suspicious soon-to-be ex-wife, and that on one occasion he had to hide the wife-to-be in his closet in order to prevent the current wife from discovering her.
...
Apart from being a flagrant liar, Douglas was a compulsive womanizer, a heavy drinker, a terrible husband to each of his four wives, a terrible father to his two children, and a bored, distracted, uncollegial, irresponsible, and at times unethical Supreme Court justice who regularly left the Court for his summer vacation weeks before the term ended. Rude, ice-cold, hot-tempered, ungrateful, foul-mouthed, self-absorbed, and devoured by ambition, he was also financially reckless--at once a big spender, a tightwad, and a sponge--who, while he was serving as a justice, received a substantial salary from a foundation established and controlled by a shady Las Vegas businessman.
So what the Hell are a few dead babies?
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Finished reading "The Court Years" 1939-1975 The Autobiography of Douglas and found it a remarkable read. Now I enjoy history and the law so a cerebral look at the Supreme Court was my kind of read. Douglas was gifted and made a lasting mark on the Court for which we can all be thankful.
ReplyDeleteRight, Deke.
ReplyDeleteMY autobio will make me a Saint, too. Of course, others may question that conclusion...
Douglas' "mark" on the Court was a bloody stain edged in black. YOU may be thankful.
Thinking citizens are not.