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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

William Douglas

Democratic appointee: Appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)

Served 1939–1975 · 38 terms

Confirmed 62–4

Biography

William Orville Douglas was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 to 1975. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views and is often cited as the most liberal justice in the U.S. Supreme Court’s history.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Douglas and the 31 justices who overlapped with Douglas, 1938–1975

−10−8−6−4−20+2+419401945195019551960196519701975More conservativeMore liberalRehnquistBurgerFrankfurterBurtonPowellR. JacksonBlackmunReedHarlanWhiteStewartClarkStevensBlackWarrenMurphyMarshallBrennanDouglas
  • William Douglas
  • 95% credible interval
  • Peer, appointed by a Democrat
  • Peer, appointed by a Republican
  • Court median
How to read this

Martin–Quinn scores place each justice on a single liberal–conservative dimension, estimated from their votes across terms, with scores allowed to shift from one term to the next. Higher is more conservative. The shaded band is the credible interval: wider when the record is thin, especially in a justice’s first terms, and narrower as votes accumulate.

Where Douglas sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−8−6−4−20+2+4−7.76−1.28

Douglas’s range across terms

Served alongside Douglas

31 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: Douglas.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Thurgood Marshall1967–1975career average −2.82 versus Douglas at −4.70John Stevens1975career average −1.81 versus Douglas at −4.70William Brennan1956–1975career average −1.78 versus Douglas at −4.70Hugo Black1938–1970career average −1.76 versus Douglas at −4.70Frank Murphy1939–1948career average −1.59 versus Douglas at −4.70Wiley Rutledge1942–1948career average −1.42 versus Douglas at −4.70Abe Fortas1965–1968career average −1.32 versus Douglas at −4.70Earl Warren1953–1968career average −1.26 versus Douglas at −4.70Arthur Goldberg1962–1964career average −1.07 versus Douglas at −4.70Louis Brandeis1938career average −0.61 versus Douglas at −4.70James Byrnes1941career average −0.18 versus Douglas at −4.70Harry Blackmun1969–1975career average −0.03 versus Douglas at −4.70Harlan Stone1938–1945career average 0.01 versus Douglas at −4.70Charles Hughes1938–1940career average 0.19 versus Douglas at −4.70Stanley Reed1938–1956career average 0.37 versus Douglas at −4.70Potter Stewart1958–1975career average 0.40 versus Douglas at −4.70Byron White1961–1975career average 0.44 versus Douglas at −4.70Tom Clark1949–1966career average 0.47 versus Douglas at −4.70Felix Frankfurter1938–1961career average 0.52 versus Douglas at −4.70Robert Jackson1941–1953career average 0.70 versus Douglas at −4.70Lewis Powell1971–1975career average 0.97 versus Douglas at −4.70Harold Burton1945–1958career average 1.00 versus Douglas at −4.70Frederick Vinson1946–1952career average 1.03 versus Douglas at −4.70Sherman Minton1949–1956career average 1.10 versus Douglas at −4.70Charles Whittaker1956–1961career average 1.17 versus Douglas at −4.70Owen Roberts1938–1944career average 1.52 versus Douglas at −4.70John Harlan1954–1970career average 1.62 versus Douglas at −4.70Warren Burger1969–1975career average 1.89 versus Douglas at −4.70Pierce Butler1938career average 2.23 versus Douglas at −4.70William Rehnquist1971–1975career average 2.97 versus Douglas at −4.70James McReynolds1938–1940career average 3.50 versus Douglas at −4.70

How Douglas voted

Every argued case Douglas took part in, newest first, with how Douglas voted in each: with the majority, in dissent, or in an equally divided Court. A Liberal or Conservative tag is the Supreme Court Database’s coding of who prevailed in the case, not a rating of the justices.

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    Data notes

    The Decisions page’s argued cases with this justice’s vote from the Supreme Court Database. “Majority” includes a concurrence; a vote that dissented in part is coded by the side the justice took overall. Cases the justice sat out and equally divided cases are left out of the percentages. “Wrote” means authored an opinion. Source: Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.).

    Report a correction

    Scores: Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10:134–153, from mqscores.wustl.edu. Appointment data: Federal Judicial Center biographical directory. Biographies: Wikipedia, text abridged, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Portraits: public-domain images via Wikimedia Commons.