Difference between revisions of "Potter Stewart"

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(I think that the Court's task... is not responsibly aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the "wall of separation," a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution.)
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Potter Stewart (1915–1985) was appointed at a relatively young age to become an Associate Justice of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] by President [[Dwight Eisenhower]] in 1958, and later retired from the Court at a relatively young age in 1981.
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{{Officeholder
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|name=Potter Stewart
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|image=PotterStewart.jpg
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|party=
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|spouse=
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|religion=[[Episcopalian]]
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|offices=
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{{Officeholder/Supreme Court Justice
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|role=Associate
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|nominator=[[Dwight Eisenhower]]
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|terms=October 14, 1958 – July 3, 1981
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|preceded=[[Harold Hitz Burton]]
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|former=y
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|succeeded=[[Sandra Day O'Connor]]
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}}
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}}
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'''Potter Stewart''' (1915–1985) was appointed at a relatively young age to become an Associate Justice of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] by President [[Dwight Eisenhower]] in 1958, and later retired from the Court at a relatively young age in 1981.
  
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==Background==
 
Justice Stewart was [[conservative]] on some issues, disagreeing with the [[Warren Court]] in these landmark cases:
 
Justice Stewart was [[conservative]] on some issues, disagreeing with the [[Warren Court]] in these landmark cases:
  
* ''[[Abington Township v. Schempp]]'' (1963) (reinterpreting the Establishment Clause to be hostile to religion)
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* ''[[Abington School District v. Schempp]]'' (1963) (reinterpreting the [[Establishment Clause]] to be hostile to [[religion]])
  
* ''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]'' (1966) (inventing a new privilege against self-incrimination using the Fifth Amendment)
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* ''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]'' (1966) (inventing a new privilege against self-incrimination using the [[Fifth Amendment]])
  
* ''[[Reynolds v. Sims]]'' (1964) (inventing a new voting right using the Fourteenth Amendment)  
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* ''[[Reynolds v. Sims]]'' (1964) (inventing a new voting right using the [[Fourteenth Amendment]])  
  
* ''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]'' (1965) (inventing a right of privacy using a penumbra of the Bill of Rights)
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* ''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]'' (1965) (inventing a [[right of privacy]] using a penumbra of the [[Bill of Rights]])
  
Justice Stewart is best known for defining pornography as "I know it when I see it," but then he held in favor of the pornographers in that case.  He also ruled against the [[death penalty]] and sought to rule against the constitutionality of the [[Vietnam War]].
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Justice Stewart wrote the 5-4 decision for the Court in ''[[Harris v. McRae]]'' (1980), rejecting a claim that there is a constitutional right to taxpayer-funded [[abortion]].
[[category:United States Supreme Court Justices]]
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Justice Stewart opposed [[incorporation doctrine]], which has incrementally applied nearly all of the [[Bill of Rights]] against the states by incorporating them into the [[Fourteenth Amendment]]:
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:"The architect of the contemporary 'incorporation' approach to the Fourteenth Amendment is, of course, MR. JUSTICE BLACK. See Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 68 (dissenting opinion). 'Incorporation' has become so Pavlovian that my Brother BLACK barely mentions the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] in the course of an 11-page opinion dealing with the procedural rule the State of [[Florida]] has adopted for cases tried in Florida courts under Florida's criminal laws."<ref>''Williams v. Florida'', 399 U.S. 78, 144 (1970) (Stewart, J., dissenting and concurring).</ref>
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Justice Stewart was the first to articulate the pro-private-property concept of a "[[judicial taking]]," without using the precise phrase:<ref>''Hughes v. Washington'', 389 U.S. 290, 297-98 (1967) (Stewart, J., concurring)</ref>
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:There can be little doubt about the impact of that change upon Mrs. Hughes: The beach she had every reason to regard as hers was declared by the state court to be in the public domain. Of course the court did not conceive of this action as a taking. As is so often the case when a State exercises its power to make law, or to regulate, or to pursue a public project, pre-existing property interests were impaired here without any calculated decision to deprive anyone of what he once owned. But the Constitution measures a taking of property not by what a State says, or by what it intends, but by what it does. Although the State in this case made no attempt to take the accreted lands by eminent domain, it achieved the same result by effecting a retroactive transformation of private into public property -- without paying for the privilege of doing so. Because the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids such confiscation by a State, no less through its courts than through its legislature, and no less when a taking is unintended than when it is deliberate, I join in reversing the judgment.
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Justice Stewart wrote a conservative defense of broad patentability in ''[[Parker v. Flook]]'', joined by Chief Justice [[Warren Burger]] and Justice [[William Rehnquist]]:  "The issue here is whether a claimed process loses its status of subject-matter patentability simply because one step in the process would not be patentable subject matter if considered in isolation. The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals held that the process is patentable subject matter, Benson being inapplicable since '[the] present claims do not preempt the formula or algorithm contained therein, because solution of the algorithm, per se, would not infringe the claims.'"<ref>quoting ''In re Flook'', 559 F.2d 21, 23.</ref>
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Justice Stewart is best known for defining [[pornography]] as "I know it when I see it," but then he held in favor of the pornographers in that case.  He also ruled against the [[death penalty]], sought to rule against the [[constitutionality]] of the [[Vietnam War]], and ruled for abortion in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]''.
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==Quotes==
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* "I think that the Court's task, in this as in all areas of constitutional adjudication, is not responsibly aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the "wall of separation," a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution." - Dissent in [[Engel v. Vitale]]
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== References ==
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{{reflist|1}}
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{{Supreme Court|warren=y|burger=y}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Potter}}
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[[Category:United States Supreme Court Justices]]

Revision as of 22:13, March 7, 2017

Potter Stewart
PotterStewart.jpg
Former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
From: October 14, 1958 – July 3, 1981
Nominator Dwight Eisenhower
Predecessor Harold Hitz Burton
Successor Sandra Day O'Connor
Information
Religion Episcopalian

Potter Stewart (1915–1985) was appointed at a relatively young age to become an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958, and later retired from the Court at a relatively young age in 1981.

Background

Justice Stewart was conservative on some issues, disagreeing with the Warren Court in these landmark cases:

Justice Stewart wrote the 5-4 decision for the Court in Harris v. McRae (1980), rejecting a claim that there is a constitutional right to taxpayer-funded abortion.

Justice Stewart opposed incorporation doctrine, which has incrementally applied nearly all of the Bill of Rights against the states by incorporating them into the Fourteenth Amendment:

"The architect of the contemporary 'incorporation' approach to the Fourteenth Amendment is, of course, MR. JUSTICE BLACK. See Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 68 (dissenting opinion). 'Incorporation' has become so Pavlovian that my Brother BLACK barely mentions the Fourteenth Amendment in the course of an 11-page opinion dealing with the procedural rule the State of Florida has adopted for cases tried in Florida courts under Florida's criminal laws."[1]

Justice Stewart was the first to articulate the pro-private-property concept of a "judicial taking," without using the precise phrase:[2]

There can be little doubt about the impact of that change upon Mrs. Hughes: The beach she had every reason to regard as hers was declared by the state court to be in the public domain. Of course the court did not conceive of this action as a taking. As is so often the case when a State exercises its power to make law, or to regulate, or to pursue a public project, pre-existing property interests were impaired here without any calculated decision to deprive anyone of what he once owned. But the Constitution measures a taking of property not by what a State says, or by what it intends, but by what it does. Although the State in this case made no attempt to take the accreted lands by eminent domain, it achieved the same result by effecting a retroactive transformation of private into public property -- without paying for the privilege of doing so. Because the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids such confiscation by a State, no less through its courts than through its legislature, and no less when a taking is unintended than when it is deliberate, I join in reversing the judgment.

Justice Stewart wrote a conservative defense of broad patentability in Parker v. Flook, joined by Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice William Rehnquist: "The issue here is whether a claimed process loses its status of subject-matter patentability simply because one step in the process would not be patentable subject matter if considered in isolation. The Court of Customs and Patent Appeals held that the process is patentable subject matter, Benson being inapplicable since '[the] present claims do not preempt the formula or algorithm contained therein, because solution of the algorithm, per se, would not infringe the claims.'"[3]

Justice Stewart is best known for defining pornography as "I know it when I see it," but then he held in favor of the pornographers in that case. He also ruled against the death penalty, sought to rule against the constitutionality of the Vietnam War, and ruled for abortion in Roe v. Wade.

Quotes

  • "I think that the Court's task, in this as in all areas of constitutional adjudication, is not responsibly aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the "wall of separation," a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution." - Dissent in Engel v. Vitale

References

  1. Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 144 (1970) (Stewart, J., dissenting and concurring).
  2. Hughes v. Washington, 389 U.S. 290, 297-98 (1967) (Stewart, J., concurring)
  3. quoting In re Flook, 559 F.2d 21, 23.