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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

William Brennan

Republican appointee: Appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

Served 1956–1990 · 34 terms

Confirmed by voice vote

Biography

William Joseph Brennan Jr. was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1956 to 1990. He was the eighth-longest serving justice in Supreme Court history, and was known for being a leader of the Court's liberal wing.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Brennan and the 23 justices who overlapped with Brennan, 1956–1989

−8−6−4−20+2+4196019651970197519801985More conservativeMore liberalRehnquistBurgerScaliaO'ConnorKennedyWhitePowellHarlanStewartClarkBlackBlackmunStevensWarrenBrennanMarshallDouglas
  • William Brennan
  • 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 Brennan sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−3.17−0.69

Brennan’s range across terms

Served alongside Brennan

23 justices

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

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Hugo Black1956–1970career average −1.76 versus Brennan at −1.78John Stevens1975–1989career average −1.81 versus Brennan at −1.78Abe Fortas1965–1968career average −1.32 versus Brennan at −1.78Earl Warren1956–1968career average −1.26 versus Brennan at −1.78Arthur Goldberg1962–1964career average −1.07 versus Brennan at −1.78Thurgood Marshall1967–1989career average −2.82 versus Brennan at −1.78Harry Blackmun1969–1989career average −0.03 versus Brennan at −1.78Stanley Reed1956career average 0.37 versus Brennan at −1.78Potter Stewart1958–1980career average 0.40 versus Brennan at −1.78Byron White1961–1989career average 0.44 versus Brennan at −1.78Tom Clark1956–1966career average 0.47 versus Brennan at −1.78Felix Frankfurter1956–1961career average 0.52 versus Brennan at −1.78Anthony Kennedy1987–1989career average 0.68 versus Brennan at −1.78Lewis Powell1971–1986career average 0.97 versus Brennan at −1.78Harold Burton1956–1958career average 1.00 versus Brennan at −1.78Sandra O'Connor1981–1989career average 1.02 versus Brennan at −1.78Sherman Minton1956career average 1.10 versus Brennan at −1.78William Douglas1956–1975career average −4.70 versus Brennan at −1.78Charles Whittaker1956–1961career average 1.17 versus Brennan at −1.78John Harlan1956–1970career average 1.62 versus Brennan at −1.78Warren Burger1969–1985career average 1.89 versus Brennan at −1.78Antonin Scalia1986–1989career average 2.50 versus Brennan at −1.78William Rehnquist1971–1989career average 2.97 versus Brennan at −1.78

How Brennan voted

Every argued case Brennan took part in, newest first, with how Brennan 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.