Brennan, Wm justice

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</div><div>William Joseph Brennan, Jr. (April 25, 1906 – July 24, 1997) was an American jurist who served as an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_Justice_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States" title="Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Associate Justice</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States" title="Supreme Court of the United States" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States Supreme Court</a> from 1956 to 1990. As the seventh <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_Justices_by_time_in_office" title="List of United States Supreme Court Justices by time in office" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history</a>, he was known for being a leader of the Court's liberal wing.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a>He was known for his outspoken <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism" title="Progressivism" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">progressive</a> views, including opposition to the death penalty and support for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion" title="Abortion" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">abortion</a> rights. He authored several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_case" title="Landmark case" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">landmark case</a>opinions, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_v.Carr" title="Baker v. Carr" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Baker v. Carr</a>, establishing the "one person, one vote" principle, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co.v.Sullivan" title="New York Times Co. v. Sullivan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New York Times Co. v. Sullivan</a>, which required "actual malice" in a libel suit against those deemed "public figures". Due to his ability to shape a wide variety of opinions and "bargain" for votes in many cases, he was considered to be among the Court's most influential members. Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia" title="Antonin Scalia" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Antonin Scalia</a> has called Brennan "probably the most influential Justice of the [20th] century."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a>On November 30, 1993, Justice Brennan was presented with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom" title="Presidential Medal of Freedom" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Presidential Medal of Freedom</a> by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bill Clinton</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-U.S.Senate-4" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="color: black; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Early_life" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">1 Early life</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Early_legal_career" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2 Early legal career</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Supreme_Court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3 Supreme Court</a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Supreme_Court_confirmation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3.1 Supreme Court confirmation</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Warren_Court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3.2 Warren Court</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Burger_and_Rehnquist_Courts" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3.3 Burger and Rehnquist Courts</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Judicial_philosophy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3.4 Judicial philosophy</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Quotations_by_Brennan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">4 Quotations by Brennan</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Recognition" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">5 Recognition</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Majority_Opinions_by_Brennan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">6 Majority Opinions by Brennan</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#See_also" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">7 See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Notes" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">8 Notes</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#Secondary_sources" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">9 Secondary sources</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Early life[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Early life" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>Brennan was born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark,New_Jersey" title="Newark, New Jersey" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Newark</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey" title="New Jersey" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New Jersey</a>, the second of eight children. His parents, William and Agnes (McDermott) Brennan, were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland" title="Ireland" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Irish</a> immigrants. They met in the United States, although both were originally from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Roscommon" title="County Roscommon" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">County Roscommon</a> in Ireland. His father had little education; he worked as a metal polisher. However, he rose to a position of leadership, serving as the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark,New_Jersey" title="Newark, New Jersey" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Newark</a> from 1927 to 1930.Brennan attended public schools in Newark, and graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barringer_High_School" title="Barringer High School" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Barringer High School</a> in 1924. He then attended the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wharton_School_of_the_University_of_Pennsylvania" title="Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania</a>, where he graduated with a degree in Economics in 1928. While there, he joined <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Tau_Delta" title="Delta Tau Delta" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Delta Tau Delta</a> Fraternity.When he was 21, Brennan married Marjorie Leonard, whom he had met in high school. They eventually had three children: William, Nancy and Hugh.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> Brennan attended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Law_School" title="Harvard Law School" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harvard Law School</a>, where he was a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Legal_Aid_Bureau" title="Harvard Legal Aid Bureau" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harvard Legal Aid Bureau</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a> He graduated in 1931.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Early legal career[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Early legal career" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>After graduating from Harvard Law School, Brennan entered private practice in his home state of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey" title="New Jersey" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New Jersey</a>, where he practiced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_law" title="Labor law" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">labor law</a> at the firm of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pitney_Hardin&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Pitney Hardin (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background: none;">Pitney Hardin</a>(which would later become <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_Pitney" title="Day Pitney" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Day Pitney</a>).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a> He entered the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army" title="United States Army" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Army</a> as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major(United_States)" title="Major (United States)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">major</a> in March 1942, and left as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel(United_States)" title="Colonel (United States)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">colonel</a> in 1945. He did legal work for the ordnance division. In 1949, Brennan was appointed to the Superior Court (a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_court" title="Trial court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">trial court</a>) by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_New_Jersey" title="Governor of New Jersey" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Governor of New Jersey</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E.Driscoll" title="Alfred E. Driscoll" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Alfred E. Driscoll</a>. In 1951, Driscoll appointed him to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_New_Jersey" title="Supreme Court of New Jersey" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Supreme Court of New Jersey</a>.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Supreme Court[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Supreme Court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>Brennan was named to the U.S. Supreme Court through a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment" title="Recess appointment" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">recess appointment</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Eisenhower" title="Dwight Eisenhower" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Dwight Eisenhower</a> in 1956, shortly before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.presidential_election,1956" title="U.S. presidential election, 1956" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">1956 presidential election</a>. Presidential advisers thought the appointment of a Roman Catholic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Democratic_Party" title="United States Democratic Party" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Democrat</a> from the Northeast would woo critical voters in the upcoming re-election campaign for Eisenhower, a<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Republican_Party" title="United States Republican Party" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Republican</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-presidential_leadership-8" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a>Brennan gained the attention of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Brownell" title="Herbert Brownell" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Herbert Brownell</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General" title="United States Attorney General" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States Attorney General</a> and Eisenhower's chief legal affairs adviser, when Brennan had to give a speech at a conference (as a substitute for New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Vanderbilt).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-eisler_85-9" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a> To Brownell, Brennan's speech seemed to suggest a marked conservatism, especially on criminal matters.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-eisler_85-9" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a> Other factors playing into Brennan's appointment were his Catholicism, his status as a state court judge (no state judge had been appointed to the High Court since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Cardozo" title="Benjamin Cardozo" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Benjamin Cardozo</a> in 1932), and Eisenhower's desire to appear bipartisan after his appointments of two Republicans: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren" title="Earl Warren" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Earl Warren</a> (former Governor of California) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall_Harlan_II" title="John Marshall Harlan II" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">John Marshall Harlan II</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[10]</a>Justice Brennan is one of thirteen justices in the history of the Supreme Court who identified as Roman Catholic.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-Warnken-11" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[11]</a><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Supreme Court confirmation<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Supreme Court confirmation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>His nomination faced a small amount of controversy from two angles. The National Liberal League opposed his nomination because they thought he would rely on his religious beliefs rather than the Constitution when ruling,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-presidential_leadership-8" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a> and Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy" title="Joseph McCarthy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Joseph McCarthy</a> had read transcripts of Brennan's speech where he decried overzealous anti-Communist investigations as "witch-hunts." After a confirmation hearing in which Brennan defended himself against McCarthy's attacks and proclaimed that he would rule solely on the basis of the Constitution and not on Church law, he was confirmed by a near-unanimous vote, with only Senator McCarthy voting against him.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-eisler_119-12" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[12]</a>He filled the seat vacated by Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Minton" title="Sherman Minton" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Sherman Minton</a>. He held the post until his retirement on July 20, 1990, for health reasons; he was succeeded on the Court by Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Souter" title="David Souter" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">David Souter</a>. Brennan then taught at<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgetown_University_Law_Center" title="Georgetown University Law Center" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Georgetown University Law Center</a> until 1994. With 1,360 opinions,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[13]</a> he is second only to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O.Douglas" title="William O. Douglas" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">William O. Douglas</a> in number of opinions written while a Supreme Court justice.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>]<h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Warren Court<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Warren Court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>An outspoken liberal throughout his career, he played a leading role in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren" title="Earl Warren" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Warren</a> Court's expansion of individual rights. Brennan played a behind-the-scenes role during the Warren Court, coaxing more conservative colleagues to join the Court's decisions. Brennan's opinions with respect to voting (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_v.Carr" title="Baker v. Carr" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Baker v. Carr</a>), criminal proceedings (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malloy_v.Hogan" title="Malloy v. Hogan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Malloy v. Hogan</a>), the free speech and establishment clauses of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="First Amendment to the United States Constitution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">First Amendment</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roth_v.United_States" title="Roth v. United States" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Roth v. United States</a>), and civil rights (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_v.School_Board_of_New_Kent_County" title="Green v. School Board of New Kent County" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Green v. School Board of New Kent County</a>) were some of the most important opinions of the Warren Era. Brennan's role in expanding free speech rights under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="First Amendment to the United States Constitution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">First Amendment</a> is particularly notable, as he wrote the Court's opinion in 1964's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_v.Sullivan" title="New York Times v. Sullivan" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New York Times v. Sullivan</a>, which created constitutional restrictions on the law of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel" title="Libel" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">libel</a>. It was Brennan who coined the phrase "chilling effect", in 1965's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dombrowski_v.Pfister" title="Dombrowski v. Pfister" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Dombrowski v. Pfister</a>. His close friendship with Chief Justice Warren, who frequently assigned Brennan the task of writing the majority opinion, led to the other justices nicknaming him the "deputy Chief".<h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Burger and Rehnquist Courts<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Burger and Rehnquist Courts" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>On the more conservative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Burger" title="Warren Burger" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Burger</a> Court, Brennan was a staunch opponent of the death penalty and a supporter of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion" title="Abortion" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">abortion</a> rights, and joined the majority in landmark rulings on both issues (1972's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furman_v.Georgia" title="Furman v. Georgia" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Furman v. Georgia</a> on the death penalty and 1973's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v.Wade" title="Roe v. Wade" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Roe v. Wade</a> on abortion). With the ascension of the most conservative member of the court, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rehnquist" title="William Rehnquist" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">William Rehnquist</a>, to the position of Chief Justice, and the replacement of<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Burger" title="Warren Burger" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Warren Burger</a> and the moderate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Franklin_Powell,Jr." title="Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr." class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lewis Powell</a> with conservatives <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia" title="Antonin Scalia" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Antonin Scalia</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Kennedy" title="Anthony Kennedy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Anthony Kennedy</a>, Brennan found himself more frequently isolated. At times his opinions would be joined only by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall" title="Thurgood Marshall" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Thurgood Marshall</a>, as by 1975 the two were the last remaining liberal justices of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Court" title="Warren Court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Warren Court</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_White" title="Byron White" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Byron White</a> was the third survivor of the Warren Court during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rehnquist" title="William Rehnquist" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Rehnquist's</a> tenure, but often sided with the conservatives, especially on cases involving criminals or abortion). This likemindedness led to both Brennan and Marshall's clerks referring to them as 'Justice Brennan-Marshall' in the face of the court's heavy conservative opposition to the two. Brennan declared in Furman that he believed the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on "cruel and unusual" punishment, and for his remaining years on the bench he and Marshall dissented from every case upholding the imposition of the death penalty. He was able to convince no other justice of this view, though Justice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Blackmun" title="Harry Blackmun" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Harry Blackmun</a> would eventually agree in 1994, after Brennan's retirement.Brennan authored three Supreme Court opinions holding that a plaintiff has a cause of action for money damages (compensatory and punitive) arising solely out of an alleged violation of the Bill of Rights.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[14]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[15]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[16]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[17]</a>In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bivens_v.Six_Unknown_Named_Agents" title="Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents</a>, Brennan so held with respect to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreasonable_Search_and_Seizure" title="Unreasonable Search and Seizure" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Unreasonable Search and Seizure</a> clause of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Fourth Amendment</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[18]</a> In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Davis_v.Passman&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Davis v. Passman (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background: none;">Davis v. Passman</a>, Brennan extended this rationale to the equal protection component of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause" title="Due Process Clause" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Due Process Clause</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Fifth Amendment</a>, in a suit for gender discrimination in employment against a former Congressman (Congressional staffers were explicitly excluded from<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_VII_of_the_Civil_Rights_Act" title="Title VII of the Civil Rights Act" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Title VII of the Civil Rights Act</a>).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[19]</a> In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carlson_v.Green&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Carlson v. Green (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background: none;">Carlson v. Green</a>, Brennan extended this rationale again to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruel_and_Unusual_Punishment" title="Cruel and Unusual Punishment" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cruel and Unusual Punishment</a> clause of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution" title="Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Eighth Amendment</a>, in a suit by the estate of a deceased federal prisoner (even though the plaintiff also had a cause of action under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Tort_Claims_Act" title="Federal Tort Claims Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Federal Tort Claims Act</a>).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[20]</a>During the same period, Brennan began to adopt and promote a coherent and expansive vision of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_jurisdiction" title="Personal jurisdiction" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">personal jurisdiction</a>. He authored the sole dissent in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopteros_Nacionales_de_Colombia,S.A.v.Hall" title="Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S. A. v. Hall" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S. A. v. Hall</a>, defining<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_contacts" title="Minimum contacts" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">minimum contacts</a> very broadly for the purposes of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_jurisdiction" title="General jurisdiction" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">general jurisdiction</a>, and influential dissents and partial concurrences in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World-Wide_Volkswagen_Corp.v.Woodson" title="World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asahi_Metal_Industry_Co.v.Superior_Court" title="Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court</a>on the subject of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_jurisdiction" title="Specific jurisdiction" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">specific jurisdiction</a>, holding to a simple "stream-of-commerce" analysis for product liability cases and emphasizing the role of fairness in the Court's analysis of the holding in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Shoe_v.Washington" title="International Shoe v. Washington" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">International Shoe v. Washington</a>. The upshot of Brennan's analysis is an expansion of the jurisdiction of state courts, particularly over corporations; state courts are typically more sympathetic to small, weak plaintiffs than to large, powerful corporate defendants. In this process, he frequently clashed with Justice Scalia over this issue, and uncharacteristically dissented from Justice Marshall's majority opinion on the subject in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaffer_v.Heitner" title="Shaffer v. Heitner" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Shaffer v. Heitner</a>.In his penultimate and final terms on the Court, he wrote the controversial rulings for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v.Johnson" title="Texas v. Johnson" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Texas v. Johnson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v.Eichman" title="United States v. Eichman" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States v. Eichman</a>, respectively. In both cases, the Court held that the First Amendment protects desecration of the United States flag.Brennan's wife Marjorie died in 1982. A few months later, in 1983 when he was 77 years old, he married Mary Fowler, who had served as his secretary for 26 years. Brennan's colleagues learned of his second marriage via a short office memo stating, "Mary Fowler and I were married yesterday and we have gone to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda" title="Bermuda" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bermuda</a>."<h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Judicial philosophy<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_J.Brennan,Jr.&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Judicial philosophy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>Brennan strongly believed in the Bill of Rights, arguing early on in his career that it should be applied to the states in addition to the federal government.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-eisler_167-21" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[21]</a> He often took positions in favor of individual rights against the state, often favoring criminal defendants, minorities, the poor, and other underrepresented groups. Furthermore, he generally shied away from the absolutist positions of Justices <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Black" title="Hugo Black" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Hugo Black</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_O.Douglas" title="William O. Douglas" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">William O. Douglas</a>, being very amenable to compromise. He was willing to compromise to win a majority of Justices.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-eisler_13-22" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[22]</a> Brennan's conservative detractors charged that he was a purveyor of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_activism" title="Judicial activism" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">judicial activism</a>, accusing him of deciding outcomes before coming up with a legal rationale for them.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-nytimes-23" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[23]</a> At his retirement, Brennan said the case he thought was most important was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldberg_v.Kelly" title="Goldberg v. Kelly" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Goldberg v. Kelly</a>, which ruled that a local, state or federal government could not terminate welfare payments to a person without a prior individual evidentiary hearing.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-.2770s_228-24" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[24]</a>In the 1980s, as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Ronald_Reagan" title="Presidency of Ronald Reagan" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Reagan administration</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rehnquist" title="William Rehnquist" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Rehnquist Court</a> threatened to "roll back" the decisions of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren" title="Earl Warren" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Warren Court</a>, Brennan became more vocal about his jurisprudential views. In a 1985 speech at Georgetown University, Brennan criticized Attorney General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese" title="Edwin Meese" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Edwin Meese</a>'s call for a "jurisprudence of original intention" as "arrogance cloaked as humility"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[25]</a> and advocated reading the U.S. Constitution to protect rights of "human dignity."Brennan was also less interested in stare decisis or the avoidance of "absolutist" positions where the death penalty was concerned. Brennan and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall" title="Thurgood Marshall" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Thurgood Marshall</a>, Brennan's closest ally in the court, concluded in<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furman_v.Georgia" title="Furman v. Georgia" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Furman v. Georgia</a> that the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional, and never accepted the legitimacy of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_v.Georgia" title="Gregg v. Georgia" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Gregg v. Georgia</a>, which ruled that the death penalty was constitutional four years later. Thereafter, Brennan or Marshall took turns, joined by the other, in issuing a dissent in every denial of certiorari in a capital case, and from every decision in a case which the court did take which failed to vacate a sentence of death.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-brethren-26" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[26]</a>Brennan also authored a dissent from the denial of certiorari in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_v.Louisiana" title="Glass v. Louisiana" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Glass v. Louisiana</a>. In Glass, the Court chose not to hear a case that challenged the constitutionality of the use of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair" title="Electric chair" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">electric chair</a> as a form of execution. Brennan wrote:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J.Brennan,Jr.#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[27]</a><blockquote style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); line-height: 22.3999996185303px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Th[e] evidence suggests that death by electrical current is extremely violent and inflicts pain and indignities far beyond the "mere extinguishment of life." Witnesses routinely report that, when the switch is thrown, the condemned prisoner "cringes," "leaps," and "fights the straps with amazing strength." "The hands turn red, then white, and the cords of the neck stand out like steel bands." The prisoner's limbs, fingers, toes, and face are severely contorted. The force of the electrical current is so powerful that the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and "rest on [his] cheeks." The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool.</blockquote>Brennan concluded by stating that electrocution is "nothing less than the contemporary technological equivalent of burning people at the stake."</div><div>===</div>