Today in Supreme Court History: May 29, 1917

5/29/1917: President John F. Kennedy's birthday. He would appoint two Justices to the Supreme Court: Byron R. White and Arthur J. Goldberg.

President Kennedy's appointees to the Supreme Court

 

Comments

[JoeFromtheBronx]

For some reason, my comment for yesterday's entry (which linked to Souter's Harvard Commencement Speech) was formatted screwy though it looks okay on my phone.

Goldberg could have been around until the 1980s if LBJ didn't later pressure him to resign to set up a short-lived Fortas tenure. One of his most famous opinions is a discussion of the 9th Amendment in Griswold v. Connecticut. He also led the way in flagging constitutional problems with the death penalty.

White was around for 30 years & turned out to not easily fit in either the liberal or conservative camp, depending on the issues. He had some notable go-it-alone positions, including his separate opinion in Buckley v. Valeo, which included support of a legislative veto. White was often in the conservative camp in some areas, including criminal justice, but not always.