37 Facts About Potter Stewart

Potter Stewart was an American lawyer and judge who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981.

In 1958, Eisenhower nominated Potter Stewart to succeed retiring Associate Justice Harold Hitz Burton, and Potter Stewart won Senate confirmation afterwards.

Potter Stewart was frequently in the minority during the Warren Court but emerged as a centrist swing vote on the Burger Court.

Potter Stewart retired in 1981 and was succeeded by the first female United States Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor.

Potter Stewart wrote dissenting opinions in cases such as Engel v Vitale, In re Gault and Griswold v Connecticut.

Potter Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan, while his family was on vacation.

Potter Stewart was the son of Harriett L and James Garfield Stewart.

Potter Stewart earned an academic scholarship to attend the prestigious Hotchkiss School, where he graduated in 1933.

Potter Stewart served as chairman of the Yale Daily News.

Potter Stewart served in World War II as a member of the US Naval Reserve aboard oil tankers.

Potter Stewart was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 23,1954, and received his commission on April 27,1954.

Potter Stewart's service terminated on October 13,1958, due to his elevation to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Potter Stewart received a recess appointment from President Eisenhower as an associate justice on the US Supreme Court on October 14,1958, to succeed Harold Hitz Burton.

Potter Stewart took the judicial oath of office that same day.

Potter Stewart was formally nominated to the same position by President Eisenhower on January 17,1959.

Potter Stewart served as Circuit Justice for the Sixth Circuit from October 14,1958 to July 3,1981, and as Circuit Justice for the Fifth Circuit from October 12,1971 to January 6,1972.

Potter Stewart came to a Supreme Court controlled by two warring ideological camps and sat firmly in its center.

Potter Stewart was temperamentally inclined to moderate, pragmatic positions, but was often in a dissenting posture during his time on the Warren Court.

In Engel, Potter Stewart found no precedent to remove school sponsored prayer, and in Abington, Potter Stewart refused to strike down the practice of school sponsored Bible reading in public schools; he was the only justice who took this position in both cases.

Potter Stewart, though flattered by the suggestion, did not want again to appear before and expose his family to the Senate confirmation process.

Potter Stewart did not relish the prospect of taking on the administrative responsibilities that were delegated to the Chief Justice.

Potter Stewart joined he decision in Furman v Georgia, which invalidated all death penalty laws then in force, and he then joined in the Court's decision four years later, Gregg v Georgia, which upheld the revised capital punishment legislation adopted in a majority of the states.

Potter Stewart opposed the Vietnam War and on a number of occasions urged the Supreme Court to grant certiorari on cases challenging the constitutionality of the war.

Potter Stewart consistently voted against claims of criminal defendants in the area of federal habeas corpus and collateral review.

Potter Stewart was concerned about broad interpretations of the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses.

Potter Stewart was the lone dissenter in the landmark juvenile law case In re Gault.

Justice Potter Stewart commented about his second thoughts about that quotation in 1981.

In Chimel v California, Stewart wrote an opinion stating that arresting a suspect in his house does not give the police the right to perform a warrantless search of the entire house, only the area surrounding the arrestee.

Justice Potter Stewart was a leader in trying to maintain access to federal courts in civil rights cases.

Potter Stewart was one of the strongest dissenters in the trend of denying litigants access to the federal courts.

In 1976, Stewart extended the Act again in Runyon v McCrary, while stages thai private schools open to all white students could no longer exclude black children, and all other offers to contract made to the general public were made subject to the 1866 Act.

In Shuttlesworth v City of Birmingham, Stewart held for the Court that police could not use an anti-loitering law to keep civil rights workers from standing or demonstrating on a sidewalk.

Potter Stewart announced his retirement from the Court on June 18,1981, and stepped down on July 3.

Potter Stewart assumed senior status upon retirement, serving in that status until his death on December 7,1985.

Potter Stewart died later that year after suffering a stroke near his vacation home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The files concerning Potter Stewart's service were closed to researchers until all the justices with whom Potter Stewart served had left the court; the last of these was Justice John Paul Stevens who considered him his judicial hero.

In 1989, Bob Woodward disclosed that Potter Stewart had been the primary source for The Brethren.