William J. Brennan Jr.

William J. Brennan Jr. was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1956 to 1990. Born in Newark, New Jersey, on April 25, 1906, he was the second of eight children of William and Agnes Brennan, Irish immigrants from County Roscommon. He lived through the New Deal era, World War II, the Warren Court, and the social and constitutional conflicts of the late twentieth century. By the time he retired, he was the eighth-longest serving justice in Supreme Court history and widely known as a leader of the Court’s liberal wing.

Brennan’s early life was rooted in Newark. He attended the city’s public schools and graduated from Barringer High School in 1924. Though accepted to Princeton, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania at his father’s wishes, transferred to the Wharton School, and graduated cum laude in 1928 with a degree in economics. He then went to Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and graduated near the top of his class in 1931. At 21, he married Marjorie Leonard, whom he had met in high school; they later had three children, William III, Nancy, and Hugh.

After Harvard, Brennan returned to New Jersey and entered private practice at Pitney Hardin, where he practiced labor law. During World War II, he was commissioned in the U.S. Army as a major in 1942 and left as a colonel in 1946, after doing legal work for the ordnance division and earning the Legion of Merit Award. He also served briefly on the staff of the United States Undersecretary of War. Back in civilian life, he resumed practice, then moved to the bench: Governor Alfred E. Driscoll appointed him to the New Jersey Superior Court in 1949 and to the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1951.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave Brennan a recess appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court on October 15, 1956, shortly before the presidential election, and Brennan was sworn in the next day. He was a Catholic Democrat from the Northeast, with lower-court experience, relative youth and good health, and a state-court background. His formal nomination faced some opposition, including from Senator Joseph McCarthy, after Brennan had criticized overzealous anti-Communist investigations as “witch-hunts.” At his confirmation hearing, Brennan said he would rule on the basis of the Constitution and not Church law. The Senate confirmed him by a near-unanimous vote, with only McCarthy voting no.

On the Court, Brennan became known for outspoken progressive views, including opposition to the death penalty, support for abortion rights, and support for gay rights. He dissented in more than 1,400 cases in which the Court refused to review a death sentence. He authored numerous landmark opinions, including Baker v. Carr in 1962, which held that legislative apportionment could be reviewed by courts; New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964, which required “actual malice” in libel suits brought by public officials; Eisenstadt v. Baird in 1972, which recognized a legal right to contraception for unmarried people; and Craig v. Boren in 1976, which held that sex-based discrimination receives heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause.

Brennan retired on July 20, 1990, for health reasons and was succeeded by David Souter. He later taught at Georgetown University Law Center until 1994 and died on July 24, 1997. With 1,360 opinions, he was second only to William O. Douglas in the number written by a Supreme Court justice. His influence also lay in his ability to shape opinions and bargain for votes. Antonin Scalia, who served with him from 1986 to 1990, called him “probably the most influential Justice of the [20th] century.” Brennan’s own words still have the plain force of a judge facing hard questions directly: “We must meet the challenge rather than wish it were not before us.”