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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Charles Whittaker

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

Served 1957–1962 · 6 terms

Confirmed by voice vote

Biography

Charles Evans Whittaker was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1957 to 1962. After working in private practice in Kansas City, Missouri, he was nominated for the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Whittaker to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Whittaker and the 12 justices who overlapped with Whittaker, 1956–1961

−6−4−20+219561961More conservativeMore liberalHarlanFrankfurterWhittakerClarkStewartWhiteBrennanWarrenBlackDouglas
  • Charles Whittaker
  • 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 Whittaker sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+40.971.38

Whittaker’s range across terms

Served alongside Whittaker

12 justices

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

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Sherman Minton1956career average 1.10 versus Whittaker at 1.17Harold Burton1956–1958career average 1.00 versus Whittaker at 1.17John Harlan1956–1961career average 1.62 versus Whittaker at 1.17Felix Frankfurter1956–1961career average 0.52 versus Whittaker at 1.17Tom Clark1956–1961career average 0.47 versus Whittaker at 1.17Byron White1961career average 0.44 versus Whittaker at 1.17Potter Stewart1958–1961career average 0.40 versus Whittaker at 1.17Stanley Reed1956career average 0.37 versus Whittaker at 1.17Earl Warren1956–1961career average −1.26 versus Whittaker at 1.17Hugo Black1956–1961career average −1.76 versus Whittaker at 1.17William Brennan1956–1961career average −1.78 versus Whittaker at 1.17William Douglas1956–1961career average −4.70 versus Whittaker at 1.17

How Whittaker voted

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