ILMA Compoundings – October 2019 - 44

COUNSEL COMPOUND

Justice John Paul Stevens
and Me
By Jeff Leiter

s a student of politics, I have
been trying to make some
sense out of the current
discourse - or lack of it - here
in Washington, D.C., and among
the large field of Democrats vying
for their party's 2020 presidential
nomination. One can definitely
feel the generational shift taking
place, notwithstanding former Vice
President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie
Sanders' poll standings.
There's another shift going on in
our politics - that is, the failure to
see "things" from a broader vantage
point, the failure to think beyond the
moment and contemplate "things"
beyond the particular politics of today,
and the failure to inculcate respect for
our institutions of government. Somehow, words like "union," "integrity,"
"civility" and "decency" have become
lost in our political vocabulary.
My uneasy feeling about this trend
was highlighted from my recent reading of the late U.S. Supreme Court
Justice John Paul Stevens' memoir, The
Making of a Justice: Reflections on My
First 94 Years. The book was published
shortly before he died this past July at
age 99. When Justice Stevens stepped
down from the bench in 2010, he
was the third-longest-serving justice
in the court's history. Interestingly,
when Justice Stevens was nominated
by President Gerald Ford in 1975, he
joined the conservative wing on the
bench. At the time of his retirement,
Justice Stevens led the court's liberals.

OCTOBER 2019

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White House Photographic Office Collection (Ford Administration)

President Gerald Ford, Chief Justice Warren Burger, and John Paul Stevens at the U.S. Supreme Court Building for
the Swearing-in of Stevens as an Associate Justice

It is not my intent to write a review
of Justice Stevens' book, although it
is well worth the read. He authored
over 400 opinions while he was on the
Supreme Court. Moreover, Justice Stevens dissented from the court's majority
opinions more than any other justice
in the modern era. However, there are
two things that strike me about him
(beyond his love for bow ties) from
reading his book.
First, like many World War II
veterans, he devoted most of his
adult life to public service. He had a
long public career. Like many of his
generation, competition and being
a competitor ran deep in him, but it
was fair competition, and it was being
kind and polite while being firm and
occasionally more.
Second, Justice Stevens was fiercely
independent and did not want to go
along with the crowd for purposes of
convenience. However, at the same
time, he believed in the capacity of the
American people to handle disagreement

and move forward. As a member of the
Supreme Court, he recognized that the
court's work made a real difference in
people's lives. With Justice Stevens, there
was both substance and style.
I have been extremely fortunate to
have had a front-row seat for many
political events over my past 45 years
in Washington, D.C. I belong to a
golf club in Arlington, Virginia, that
has counted a number of Supreme
Court justices and five U.S. presidents
as members over its 125-year history.
In the mid-1990s, I became a regular
"replacement" when Justice Stevens
and his group needed a fourth player
for a weekend match.
The first time I played golf with
Justice Stevens, I asked him on the first
tee whether he preferred to be called,
"Justice." He responded, "My name is
John." So, for nearly 25 years, we were
on a first-name basis, although my
last round of golf with him was about
15 years ago. Although his hearing
failed in later years, he would always

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