Justice John Paul Stevens (natural April 20, 1920) is an American jurist who has been a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1975; he is the oldest and longest serving justice currently on the court.

Stevens was natural inside Chicago, Illinois. He is married to Maryan Mulholl& & has quatern tykes from either the former marriage: John Joseph (departed), Kathryn, Elizabeth Jane and Susan Roberta. He besides has 5 step tikes: Catherine, Carolyn, Daniel, Terrence & Jerry. He received an The.B. from either a University of Chicago, and the J.D. from either Northwestern University School of Law. He served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945 as an intelligence officer, & was awarded the Bronze Star. He was a law clerk to Justice Wiley Rutledge of a Supreme Court of the United States during the 1947 Term. He was admitted to law practice inside Illinois inside 1949. He was Associate Direction to the Subcommittee on the Learn of Monopoly Power of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1951-1952, and the member of the Law office General's National Committee to Survey Antitrust Law, 1953-1955. He was 2nd Vice President of the Chicago Bar Association in 1970. From either November 2, 1970 to 1975, he served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, nominated by President Nixon. President Ford then nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1975 to replace Justice William O. Douglas, who resigned that year, and he took his seat December 19, 1975 after being confirmed 99-0 by the Senate. When a senior member of a court, Stevens assumed a administrative duties of the court when the position of Chief Justice of the United States was vacant in September of 2005, including swearing in newly Chief Justice John Roberts.

Judicial philosophy
Early inside his tenure Stevens on the face of it took the moderate path. He voted to reinstate capital punishment in the United States and opposed the affirmative action program at issue in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. On the supplementary conservative Rehnquist Court, Stevens tended to side with a further liberal-leaning Justices in issues like abortion rights, gay rights and federalism.

Stevens's jurisprudence hwhen unremarkably been characterized as idiosyncratic; he typically adopts unusual or even lonely positions in issues. Stevens, world health organization (based on data from reports) unsuch as virtually all justices commonly writes a number one drafts of his opinions himself, is non an originalist (like fellow Justice Antonin Scalia) nor a pragmatist (rather Richard Posner) nor does he pronounce himself a cautious liberal (such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg). He has been considered section of a liberal axis of the court since the mid-1980s.

Inside 1983's Michigan v. Long, for example, Stevens dissented from the U.S. Supreme Court guide overturning a Michigan Supreme Court's interpretation of federal law, arguing that state court decisions granting humans rights under a federal constitution that nullify complained-of state action should non exist as disturbed by federal courts. Within 1985's Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Stevens argued against the Supreme Court's famous "strict scrutiny" doctrine for laws involving "suspect classifications", putting forth the view that all classifications should be evaluated on the basis of the "rational basis" test as to whether they could have been enacted by an "impartial legislature."

Stevens's views in obscenity under a Number one Amendment use changed across a years. At first quite critical of constitutional protection for obscenity, rejecting the challenge to Detroit zoning ordinances that barred adult theatres withwithin intended areas in 1976's Young v. Western Mini Theatres ("[E]ven though we recognize that the First Amendment will not tolerate the total suppression of erotic materials that have some arguably artistic value, it is manifest that society's interest in protecting this type of expression is of a wholly different, and lesser, magnitude than the interest in untrammeled political debate"), Stevens okay, adheres firmly to the libertarian loose speech approach in obscenity issues, voting to strike down the federal law regulating "virtual" kiddy porn within 2004's Ashcroft v. ACLU.

Stevens was when an ardent critic of affirmative action, voting in 1978 to invalidate a affirmative action program at issue in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. He too dissented around 1980's Fullilove v. Klutznick, which upheld the minority placed-aside program. He bit by bit shifted his position on top a years & voted to uphold a somewhat different affirmatory action program at a University of Michigan Law School challenged inside 2003's Grutter v. Bollinger.

Mayhap a virtually all uniform feature of his jurisprudence come his family medicine information to World War II around his opinions, which Stevens often cites in an attempt to appeal to shared out loyal, Our contries values. E.g., Stevens, the Globe War II veteran, was visibly angered by liberal lawyer William Kunstler's flippant defense of flag-burning inside unwritten argument around 1989's Texas v. Johnson and voted to uphold a prohibition on flag-burning against a First Amendment attack. Wrote Stevens, "The ideas of liberty and equality have been an irresistible force in motivating leaders like Patrick Henry, Susan B. Anthony, and Abraham Lincoln, schoolteachers like Nathan Hale and Booker T. Washington, the Philippine Scouts who fought at Bataan, and the soldiers who scaled the bluff at Omaha Beach. If those ideas are worth fighting for - and our history demonstrates that they are - it cannot be true that the flag that uniquely symbolizes their power is not itself worthy of protection from unnecessary desecration."

Criticism and praise

Stevens hwhen drawn criticism from either a select few on a correct, world health organization point to him every bit one of the total of justices world health organization were appointed by a Republican president eventually moved supplementary & extra towards the left as the years passed. At a period of Stevens' appointment, Senator James A. McClure questioned President Ford about Stevens and was told that Stevens would, "vote like a good Republican." [http://www.townhall.com/news/ext_wire.html?rowid=103] Unlike some other Republican presidents such as Eisenhower, Nixon and George H.W. Bush world health organization were reportedly displeased by using a late opinion of a select few of their appointments, President Ford recently [http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051010/cm_usatoday/bushswordssaddlemiersshesnotgoingtochange;_ylt=A86.I0r2CEtDfMUABxD9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl praised] Stevens: "He has served his nation well, with dignity, intellect and without partisan political concerns."

Stevens has given lectures on the importance of "learning on the job" & taking care of a law by having flexibility, citing when a single lesson his previous disapproval & todays trend lines of a few affirmative action policies [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--justicestevens0930sep30,0,5488014.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork].