InsideGov

Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Potter Stewart

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

Served 1958–1981 · 23 terms

Confirmed 70–17

Biography

Potter Stewart was an American lawyer and judge who was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Stewart and the 18 justices who overlapped with Stewart, 1958–1980

−8−6−4−20+2+419601965197019751980More conservativeMore liberalRehnquistBurgerPowellHarlanStewartWhiteBlackBlackmunStevensWarrenBrennanMarshallDouglas
  • Potter Stewart
  • 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 Stewart sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+4−0.090.84

Stewart’s range across terms

Served alongside Stewart

18 justices

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

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Byron White1961–1980career average 0.44 versus Stewart at 0.40Tom Clark1958–1966career average 0.47 versus Stewart at 0.40Felix Frankfurter1958–1961career average 0.52 versus Stewart at 0.40Harry Blackmun1969–1980career average −0.03 versus Stewart at 0.40Lewis Powell1971–1980career average 0.97 versus Stewart at 0.40Harold Burton1958career average 1.00 versus Stewart at 0.40Charles Whittaker1958–1961career average 1.17 versus Stewart at 0.40John Harlan1958–1970career average 1.62 versus Stewart at 0.40Arthur Goldberg1962–1964career average −1.07 versus Stewart at 0.40Warren Burger1969–1980career average 1.89 versus Stewart at 0.40Earl Warren1958–1968career average −1.26 versus Stewart at 0.40Abe Fortas1965–1968career average −1.32 versus Stewart at 0.40Hugo Black1958–1970career average −1.76 versus Stewart at 0.40William Brennan1958–1980career average −1.78 versus Stewart at 0.40John Stevens1975–1980career average −1.81 versus Stewart at 0.40William Rehnquist1971–1980career average 2.97 versus Stewart at 0.40Thurgood Marshall1967–1980career average −2.82 versus Stewart at 0.40William Douglas1958–1975career average −4.70 versus Stewart at 0.40

How Stewart voted

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

Loading cases…
    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.