William J. Brennan Jr.

William J. Brennan Jr. was born on April 25, 1906, in Newark, New Jersey, the second of eight children. Both his parents, William and Agnes (McDermott) Brennan, were Irish immigrants. They met in the United States, although both were originally from County Roscommon in Ireland. William Brennan Sr. had little education and worked as a metal polisher, but rose to a position of leadership, serving as the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Newark from 1927 to 1930.

Brennan attended public schools in Newark, and graduated from Barringer High School in 1924. He was accepted to Princeton University, but enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania at his father's wishes. After spending a year in the College of Arts & Sciences, Brennan transferred to the Wharton School, graduating in 1928 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, cum laude.{{cite book | last1=Stern | first1=Seth | last2=Wermiel | first2=Stephen | author-link2=Stephen Wermiel| title=Justice Brennan | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCpA_Z_IUDMC&q=wharton | publisher=University Press of Kansas | publication-place=Lawrence, Kansas | date=2013-02-27 | isbn=978-0-7006-1912-2 | page=16}}{{cite book |last1=Hentoff |first1=Nat |title=Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American |date=1998 |page=31 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ysFcpeQulUIC&q=william+brennan+1928+economics+degree+wharton&pg=PA31 |access-date=August 3, 2015|isbn=9780520219816 }} While there, he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity.{{cite web |url=http://oudelts.chapterspot.com/page.php?pageid=6 |title=Famous Delts |publisher=Delta Tau Delta |access-date=August 3, 2015 |archive-date=March 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308072722/http://oudelts.chapterspot.com/page.php?pageid=6 |url-status=live }} Brennan then attended Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He graduated in 1931 with a Bachelor of Laws ranked near the top of his class.{{cite web |url=http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hlab/alumni.php |title=Harvard Legal Aid Bureau |publisher=Law.harvard.edu |date=October 9, 2008 |access-date=January 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100203174659/http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hlab/alumni.php |archive-date=February 3, 2010 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}

When he was 21, Brennan married Marjorie Leonard, whom he had met in high school. They eventually had three children: William III, Nancy, and Hugh.{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101502672.html |title=Justice William Brennan, a liberal lion who wouldn't hire women |author=David J. Garrow |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 17, 2010 |access-date=May 27, 2011 |archive-date=November 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112124731/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/15/AR2010101502672.html |url-status=live }}

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Brennan entered private practice in his home state of New Jersey, where he practiced labor law at the firm of Pitney Hardin (which would later become Day Pitney). During World War II, Brennan was commissioned in the Army as a major in March 1942, and left as a colonel in 1946.{{Cite web |title=Brennan, William Joseph, Jr. {{!}} Federal Judicial Center |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/brennan-william-joseph-jr |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.fjc.gov}} He did legal work for the ordnance division and earned the Legion of Merit Award.{{Cite web |title=Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (1906-1997) – Constituting America |url=https://constitutingamerica.org/justice-william-j-brennan-jr-1906-1997-guest-essayist-daniel-a-cotter/ |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=constitutingamerica.org}}{{Cite web |title=William J. Brennan, Jr. |url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/william_j_brennan_jr |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=Oyez |language=en}} In early 1946, he served as a staff member of the United States Undersecretary of War. Later that year, he returned to Pitney Hardin and continued his practice for the next three years. His partners added his name to the firm shortly after his return.

In 1949, Brennan was appointed to the Superior Court (a trial court) by Governor of New Jersey Alfred E. Driscoll. In 1951, Driscoll appointed him to the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Brennan was given a recess appointment as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 15, 1956,{{cite report| last=McMillion| first=Barry J.| date= January 28, 2022| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| publisher=Congressional Research Service| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 15, 2022}} shortly before the 1956 presidential election, and was sworn into office the following day. The president's advisers thought the appointment of a Roman Catholic Democrat from the Northeast would woo critical voters in the upcoming re-election campaign for Eisenhower, a Republican.{{cite book |title=Presidential Leadership |author=James Taranto, Leonard Leo |publisher=Wall Street Journal Books |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zxBAnuWpg5kC |access-date=October 20, 2008 |isbn=9780743272261 |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511111233/http://books.google.com/books?id=zxBAnuWpg5kC |url-status=live }} Cardinal Francis Spellman had asked Eisenhower to appoint a Catholic to the court. Brennan was one of two candidates who met Eisenhower's three criteria: experience on lower courts; relative youth and good health; and a Catholic.{{cite web | title=Ike's Mistake Part II – The Nomination of William J. Brennan Jr. | website=Virginia Law Weekly | date=24 October 2018 | url=https://www.lawweekly.org/col/2018/10/24/ikes-mistake-part-ii-the-nomination-of-william-j-brennan-jr | access-date=5 June 2024}}{{cite book | last1=Stern | first1=Seth | last2=Wermiel | first2=Stephen | author-link2=Stephen Wermiel| title=Justice Brennan | publisher=University Press of Kansas | publication-place=Lawrence, Kansas | date=2013-02-27 | isbn=978-0-7006-1912-2 | page=}}

Brennan gained the attention of Herbert Brownell, United States Attorney General 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 Arthur Vanderbilt).Eisler (1993), p. 85. To Brownell, Brennan's speech seemed to suggest a marked conservatism, especially on criminal matters.

His nomination, formally submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 14, 1957, faced a small amount of controversy from two angles. The National Liberal League opposed the nomination of a Catholic, thinking he would rely on his religious beliefs rather than the Constitution when ruling, and Senator Joseph McCarthy 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,[http://www.princeton.edu/aci/cases-pdf/aci3.brennanhearings.pdf "I believe that the Senators are entitled to know how you feel...."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408192246/http://www.princeton.edu/aci/cases-pdf/aci3.brennanhearings.pdf |date=April 8, 2016 }}: Hearings on the Nomination of William J. Brennan Jr. to Be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Princeton University (accessed February 14, 2016). he was confirmed by a near-unanimous vote, with only Senator McCarthy voting against him.Eisler (1993), p. 119.

Other factors playing into Brennan's appointment were his status as a state court judge – no state judge had been appointed to the High Court since Benjamin N. Cardozo in 1932 – and Eisenhower's desire to appear bipartisan after his appointments of two Republicans: Earl Warren (former Governor of California) and John Marshall Harlan II.Eisler (1993), p. 84.

Brennan filled the seat vacated by Justice Sherman Minton. He held the post until his retirement on July 20, 1990, for health reasons; he was succeeded on the Court by Justice David Souter. He was the last federal judge in active service to have been appointed to his position by President Eisenhower.{{efn|One of Eisenhower's circuit court appointees, Harry Blackmun, would be appointed to the Supreme Court in 1970 by Richard Nixon and remain active on the Supreme Court until 1994; one Eisenhower district court appointee, Frank Minis Johnson, would be appointed by Jimmy Carter to the Fifth Circuit and remain in active service as a circuit court judge on the newly created Eleventh Circuit until 1991, while a third surviving Eisenhower appointee, Giles Rich of the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals, would remain in active service on the Federal Circuit until 1999.}} Brennan then taught at Georgetown University Law Center until 1994. With 1,360 opinions,{{cite journal |last=Little |first=Rory K. |date=1999 |title=Reading Justice Brennan: Is There a "Right" to Dissent? |url=http://librarysource.uchastings.edu/repository/Little/50HastingsLJ683.pdf |journal=Hastings Law Journal |volume=50 |pages=683 |access-date=October 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810180458/http://librarysource.uchastings.edu/repository/Little/50HastingsLJ683.pdf |archive-date=August 10, 2014 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} he is second only to William O. Douglas in number of opinions written while a Supreme Court justice.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/in-the-opinion-of-many-justice-brennan-was-the-most-influential-member-in-the-us-supreme-court-s-history-1.98377|title=In the opinion of many, Justice Brennan was the most influential member in the US Supreme Court's history|newspaper=The Irish Times |access-date=September 5, 2017|archive-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128000921/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/in-the-opinion-of-many-justice-brennan-was-the-most-influential-member-in-the-us-supreme-court-s-history-1.98377|url-status=live}}

An outspoken liberal throughout his career, he played a leading role in the Warren 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 (Baker v. Carr), criminal proceedings (Malloy v. Hogan), the free speech and establishment clauses of the First Amendment (Roth v. United States), and civil rights (Green v. County School Board of New Kent County) were some of the most important opinions of the Warren Era. Brennan's role in expanding free speech rights under the First Amendment is particularly notable, as he wrote the Court's opinion in 1964's New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which created constitutional restrictions on the law of libel. It was Brennan who coined the phrase "chilling effect", in 1965's Dombrowski v. Pfister. 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".

In the 1962–1963 term, one of Brennan's law clerks was Richard A. Posner, who later became a founder of the field of Law and Economics and one of the most influential legal scholars in the United States.{{cite web |url=https://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/posner-r |title=Richard A. Posner {{!}} University of Chicago Law School |website=www.law.uchicago.edu |date=December 2008 |access-date=2019-09-25 |archive-date=September 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927222354/https://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/posner-r |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/books/review/richard-posner-biography-william-domnarski.html |title=The Provocative Life of Judge Richard Posner |last=Witt |first=John Fabian |date=2016-10-07 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-09-25 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=September 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925181433/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/books/review/richard-posner-biography-william-domnarski.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/09/09/the-judicial-philosophy-of-richard-posner |title=The judicial philosophy of Richard Posner |date=2017-09-09 |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=2019-09-25 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=September 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924220910/https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/09/09/the-judicial-philosophy-of-richard-posner |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/03/judge-richard-posner-says-we-should-burn-all-copies-of-the-bluebook/ |title=Judge Richard Posner explains why we should "burn all copies of the Bluebook" |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=September 25, 2019 |archive-date=September 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925181108/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/03/judge-richard-posner-says-we-should-burn-all-copies-of-the-bluebook/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.lawliberty.org/2019/05/13/swan-song-of-a-great-colossus-the-latest-from-richard-posner/ |title=Swan Song of a Great Colossus: The Latest from Richard Posner |date=2019-05-13 |website=Law & Liberty |access-date=2019-09-25 |archive-date=May 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517232601/https://www.lawliberty.org/2019/05/13/swan-song-of-a-great-colossus-the-latest-from-richard-posner/ |url-status=live }}

On the less liberal Burger Court, Brennan was a staunch opponent of the death penalty and a supporter of abortion rights and joined the majority in landmark rulings on both issues (Furman v. Georgia (1972) on the death penalty and Roe v. Wade (1973) on abortion). With the departure of moderate Potter Stewart in 1981, the ascension of the most conservative member of the court, William Rehnquist, to the position of Chief Justice, following the retirement of Warren Burger, Brennan found himself more frequently isolated. At times, his opinions would be joined only by Thurgood Marshall since, by 1975, they were the last remaining liberals of the Warren Court.{{efn|Byron White was the third survivor of the Warren Court during Rehnquist's tenure but often sided with the conservatives, especially on cases involving criminals or abortion.}} That like-mindedness 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, but Justice Harry Blackmun would eventually agree in 1994, after Brennan's retirement.{{Cite news |last=Greenhouse |first=Linda |date=1994-02-23 |title=Death Penalty Is Renounced By Blackmun |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/23/us/death-penalty-is-renounced-by-blackmun.html |access-date=2024-06-11 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

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.{{cite journal |first=Michael P. |last=Robotti |title=Separation of Powers and the Exercise of Concurrent Constitutional Authority in the Bivens Context |volume=8 |journal=Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal |pages=171 |year=2009}}{{cite journal |first=Scott R. |last=Daniel |title=The Spy Who Sued the King: Scaling the Fortress of Executive Immunity for Constitutional Torts in Wilson v. Libby |volume=16 |journal=American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law |pages=503 |year=2008}}{{cite journal |first=Stephen I. |last=Vladeck |title=National Security and Bivens after Iqbal |volume=14 |journal=Lewis & Clark Law Review |pages=255 |year=2010}}{{cite journal |first=Susan |last=Bandes |title=Reinventing Bivens: The Self-Executing Constitution |volume=68 |journal=Southern California Law Review |pages=289 |year=1995}} In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, Brennan so held with respect to the Unreasonable Search and Seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment.Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971). In Davis v. Passman, Brennan extended this rationale to the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, in a suit for gender discrimination in employment against a former Congressman (Congressional staffers were explicitly excluded from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act).Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228 (1979). In Carlson v. Green, Brennan extended this rationale again to the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment, in a suit by the estate of a deceased federal prisoner (even though the plaintiff also had a cause of action under the Federal Tort Claims Act).Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14 (1980).

During the same period, Brennan began to adopt and promote a coherent and expansive vision of personal jurisdiction. He authored the sole dissent in Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S. A. v. Hall, defining minimum contacts very broadly for the purposes of general jurisdiction, and influential dissents and partial concurrences in World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson and Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court on the subject of specific jurisdiction, 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 International Shoe Co. v. Washington. In Burger King v. Rudzewicz, Brennan authored the majority opinion and extended his broad view of personal jurisdiction to areas of business contracts and franchising. 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 Shaffer v. Heitner.{{Needs citation|date=March 2024}}

In his penultimate and final terms on the Court, he wrote the controversial rulings for Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, respectively. In both cases, the Court held that the First Amendment protects desecration of the United States flag.

Brennan's wife Marjorie died in December 1982. Slightly more than three months later, in March 1983 at age 76, he married Mary Fowler,{{cite news |title=Mary Fowler Brennan, 83, Justice's Widow |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/02/us/mary-fowler-brennan-83-justice-s-widow.html |access-date=11 April 2021 |agency=The New York Times |date=2 April 2000 |archive-date=April 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411155613/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/02/us/mary-fowler-brennan-83-justice-s-widow.html |url-status=live }} who had served as his secretary for 26 years.{{cite web | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/12/02/Marjorie-Brennan-the-wife-of-Supreme-Court-Justice-William/8204407653200/ | title=Marjorie Brennan, the wife of Supreme Court Justice William }} 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 Bermuda."{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/03/31/mary-fowler-brennan/d551d808-5632-4688-92d2-da7100db435f/ |title=Mary Fowler Brennan |date=2000-03-31 |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}}

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.Eisler (1993), p. 167 He often took positions in favor of individual rights against the state, favoring criminal defendants, minorities, the poor, and other underrepresented groups. Furthermore, he generally shied away from the absolutist liberal positions of Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, being very amenable to compromise in order to win a majority of Justices.Eisler (1993), p. 13 Brennan's conservative detractors charged that he was a purveyor of judicial activism, accusing him of deciding outcomes before coming up with a legal rationale for them.{{Cite news |last=Jr |first=Stuart Taylor |date=1988-07-03 |title=THE NATION: A Volley by Brennan; The 'Judicial Activists' Are Always on the Other Side |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/03/weekinreview/nation-volley-brennan-judicial-activists-are-always-other-side.html |access-date=2023-02-17 |issn=0362-4331}} At his retirement, Brennan said the case he thought was most important was Goldberg v. Kelly, which ruled that a local, state or federal government could not terminate welfare payments to a person without a prior individual evidentiary hearing.{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link=David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York City |isbn=0-465-04195-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/228 228–229] |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/228}}

In the 1980s, as the Reagan administration and the Rehnquist Court threatened to "roll back" the decisions of the Warren Court, Brennan became more vocal about his jurisprudential views. In a 1985 speech at Georgetown University, Brennan criticized Attorney General Edwin Meese's call for a "jurisprudence of original intention" as "arrogance cloaked as humility"{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-13-mn-15849-story.html |title=Justice Brennan Calls Criticism of Court Disguised Arrogance |agency=Associated Press |date=October 13, 1985 |access-date=July 13, 2016 |via=LA Times |archive-date=March 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307230023/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-10-13/news/mn-15849_1_high-court |url-status=live }} 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, as he believed that the deliberate taking of human life by the state, as a punishment, was inherently cruel and unusual. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, Brennan's closest ally in the Court, concluded in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional, and never accepted the legitimacy of Gregg v. Georgia, 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.Woodward, The Brethren; Lazarus, Closed Chambers

Brennan also authored a dissent from the denial of certiorari in Glass v. Louisiana. In Glass, the Court chose not to hear a case that challenged the constitutionality of the use of the electric chair as a form of execution. Brennan wrote:{{cite web |url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2134 |title=Execution News and Developments: 2004–1998 |publisher=Deathpenaltyinfo.org |access-date=January 3, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103035125/http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2134 |archive-date=November 3, 2007 |df=mdy-all}}

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.

Brennan concluded by stating that electrocution is "nothing less than the contemporary technological equivalent of burning people at the stake." Despite his personal stance against the death penalty, Brennan implicitly acknowledged its current reality by offering his thoughts in other legal aspects of court cases, if capital punishment was to apply to the given case. In Strickland v. Washington, a case involving a capital defendant, although Brennan disagreed with keeping the verdict of death sentence, his concurrence agreed with the test for ineffective assistance of counsel that the majority opinion established. (Marshall dissented in this case, objecting to the new test and stating that the counsel in the trial was ineffective.)

Brennan voted with the majority in Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion nationally and helped craft the decision. Brennan wrote the majority opinion in Roth v. United States which set new standards for obscenity laws, allowing some prosecutions, but drastically loosening the laws overall.{{cite web |title=Roth v. United States |url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/414/roth-v-united-states |website=First Amendment Encyclopedia |publisher=University of Minnesota |access-date=11 August 2022}} He later reversed his position in dissent in Miller v. California arguing that obscenity laws were unconstitutional.{{cite web |title=William J. Brennan Jr |url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1321/william-brennan-jr |website=First Amendmemt Encyclopedia |publisher=University of Minnesota |access-date=11 August 2022}} Although Brennan joined the majority in United States v. O'Brien which upheld the constitutionality of laws banning draft card burning, he later opposed the Vietnam War and dissented several times when the Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to its legality.{{cite web |last1=Schoen |first1=Roderick B. |title=A Strange Silence: Vietnam and the Supreme Court |url=https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/10601/96/schoen3.pdf?sequence=1 |website=Texas Tech University Libraries |access-date=11 August 2022}} In a dissent in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez Brennan argued that unequal funding of poor and wealthy school districts violated the Equal Protection Clause.{{cite web |last1=Brennan |first1=William J. Jr |title=San Antonio Independent School District V. Rodriguez |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/411/1/#tab-opinion-1950219 |website=Justia}}

Brennan supported gay rights. In a dissent from a denial of certiorari in 1985 involving a lesbian teacher fired for her sexual orientation, Brennan publicly criticized homophobia, writing "Homosexuals have historically been the object of deep and sustained pernicious hostility, and it is fair to say that discrimination against homosexuals is likely to reflect deep-seated prejudice rather than rationality."{{cite book |last1=Murdoch |first1=Joyce |title=Courting Justice: Gay men and Lesbians at the Supreme Court |date=May 9, 2002 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=9780786730940 |pages=248 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mH5mzdA1gtMC}} He joined the dissent in Bowers v. Hardwick, which allowed states to prosecute consensual homosexual sodomy, a decision which the Court announced in June 1986.{{Cite web|title=Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bowers_v_hardwick_(1986)|access-date=2021-06-28|website=LII / Legal Information Institute|language=en|archive-date=June 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628110933/https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bowers_v_hardwick_(1986)|url-status=live}}

He is regarded as one of the most liberal justices in the history of the court.{{Cite web|last1=Ph. D.|first1=History|last2=M. A.|first2=University of Colorado|last3=B. A.|first3=University of Connecticut|title=The 7 Most Liberal Supreme Court Justices in American History|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/most-liberal-supreme-court-justices-3325462|access-date=2021-06-28|website=ThoughtCo|language=en|archive-date=June 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628110932/https://www.thoughtco.com/most-liberal-supreme-court-justices-3325462|url-status=live}}

File:Justice William J. Brennan Jr. (19294936792).jpg

Brennan's retirement in 1990 was precipitated by a mild stroke. While he initially intended to continue serving, his doctors told him that he would be at risk of a more debilitating stroke if he kept working.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/25/us/william-brennan-91-dies-gave-court-liberal-vision.html|title = William Brennan, 91, Dies; Gave Court Liberal Vision|last = Greenhouse|first = Linda|date = July 25, 1997|accessdate = July 21, 2023|newspaper = The New York Times|page = A1|url-access = limited}}

Throughout retirement, Brennan maintained a friendly relationship with his successor, David Souter. In 1995, the Brennan Center for Justice opened at New York University, a research institute created at the initiative of several of Brennan's former clerks, and named in his honor.

In November 1996, Brennan fell and broke his hip, and underwent rehabilitation for the injury at a nursing home in Arlington, Virginia, where he died on July 24, 1997, at the age of 91. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, beside his first wife and near the gravesites of other Supreme Court justices.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/30/us/with-gentle-humor-brennan-is-buried.html|title = With Gentle Humor, Brennan Is Buried|last = Seelye|first = Katharine Q.|date = July 30, 1997|accessdate = July 21, 2023|page = A14|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}

As a result of his long and distinguished career on the United States Supreme Court, Brennan was honored with many different awards. In 1969, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, considered the most prestigious award for American Catholics.{{cite web |publisher=University of Notre Dame |title=Recipients {{!}} The Laetare Medal |url=https://laetare.nd.edu/recipients/#info1969 |access-date=31 July 2020 |language=en |archive-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204061838/https://laetare.nd.edu/recipients/#info1969 |url-status=live }} In 1987, Brennan received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.{{cite web |url=http://www.jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national |title=National – Jefferson Awards Foundation |access-date=July 13, 2016 |archive-date=November 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124043935/http://jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national |url-status=live }} In 1989, the historic Hudson County Courthouse in Jersey City, New Jersey, which had opened in 1910, was renamed the William J. Brennan Court House in his honor{{cite web |last=Karnoutsos |first=Carmela |title=Brennan (William J.) Hudson County Courthouse |publisher=New Jersey City University |url=https://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/B_Pages/Brennan_HC_Courthouse.htm |access-date=2014-10-31 |archive-date=November 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101133354/https://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/B_Pages/Brennan_HC_Courthouse.htm |url-status=live }} and, in that same year, he received the Freedom Medal.Four Freedoms Award#Freedom Medal On November 30, 1993, President Bill Clinton presented Brennan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.{{cite web |last=U.S. Senate |title=Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients |url=https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/two_column_table/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_Recipients.htm |access-date=July 1, 2012 |archive-date=July 14, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040714130038/http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/two_column_table/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_Recipients.htm |url-status=live }}

Upon his death, Brennan lay in repose in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building.{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-justice-funeral-photos_us_56c4a893e4b0b40245c89be2|title=Historic Photos Show Supreme Court Justices' Funerals Through The Years|last1=McGonigal|first1=Chris|last2=Farias|first2=Cristian|date=February 17, 2016|publisher=Huffington Post|access-date=28 September 2018|archive-date=March 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324110738/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-justice-funeral-photos_us_56c4a893e4b0b40245c89be2|url-status=live}}

Years after his death, in 2010, Brennan was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame{{cite web | title=Justice William J. Brennan | website=New Jersey Hall of Fame | date=28 March 2022 | url=https://njhalloffame.org/hall-of-famers/2010-inductees/justice-william-j-brennan/ | access-date=5 June 2024}} and William J. Brennan High School was founded in San Antonio, Texas, honoring him.{{cite web |url=https://nisd.net/brennan/school-namesake |title=SCHOOL NAMESAKE |author= |date=2009 |website=nisd.net |publisher=nisd |access-date=October 10, 2019 |archive-date=October 18, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018041017/https://nisd.net/brennan/school-namesake |url-status=dead }} Brennan Park across from the historic Essex County Veterans Courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, was named in Brennan's honor and a statue of him was erected in front of the Essex County Hall of Records by historian Guy Sterling.{{cite web |last1=Schoonmaker |first1=L. Craig |title=Brennan Park |url=http://newarkusa.blogspot.com/2015/04/brennan-park.html |website=NewarkUSA Blog |publisher=Blogspot |access-date=July 8, 2015 |archive-date=July 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715132105/http://newarkusa.blogspot.com/2015/04/brennan-park.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Park |url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Justice+William+J.+Brennan+Jr+Park/@40.7382768,-74.1785087,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c2537ba49facdb:0x67a9bb5964949fd0?hl=en |website=Google Maps |access-date=July 8, 2015 |archive-date=November 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108182244/https://www.google.com/maps/place/Justice+William+J.+Brennan+Jr+Park/@40.7382768,-74.1785087,17z/data=%214m2%213m1%211s0x89c2537ba49facdb:0x67a9bb5964949fd0?hl=en |url-status=live }}

• Brennan Center for Justice
• List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 3)
• List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
• List of United States federal judges by longevity of service
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Rehnquist Court
• United States Supreme Court cases during the Warren Court
• William J. Brennan Award

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite book

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kKhAkSaXMFoC&q=%22Day%2C+Berry+and+Howard%22+OR+%22Day+Pitney%22+OR+%22Pitney+Hardin%22&pg=PA34

|title = The Last Liberal: Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and the Decisions That Transformed America

|author = Kim Isaac Eisler

|publisher = Beard Books

|year = 2003

|pages = 32–35, 38, 52–53

|isbn = 9781587982712

|access-date = 2020-10-18

|quote = It is often reported that Pitney, Hardin & Ward, now located in Morristown, New Jersey, was founded by one Supreme Court justice and produced another. But it is not true.

|archive-date = November 19, 2020

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201119135617/https://books.google.com/books?id=kKhAkSaXMFoC&q=%22Day,+Berry+and+Howard%22+OR+%22Day+Pitney%22+OR+%22Pitney+Hardin%22&pg=PA34

|url-status = live

}}

}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_f0e8 |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3 }}
• {{cite book |last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books |year=2001 |isbn=1-56802-126-7}}
• {{cite book |title=A Justice for All: William J. Brennan Jr. and the Decisions That Transformed America |isbn=978-0-671-76787-7 |first=Kim Isaac |last=Eisler |year=1993 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/justiceforallwil00eisl }}
• {{cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=Chelsea House |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
• {{cite book |last=Hudson |first=David L. |title=The Rehnquist Court: Understanding Its Impact and Legacy |publisher=Praeger |year=2006 |location=New York |isbn=0-275-98971-2}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
• {{cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
• {{cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Herman |title=The Rehnquist Court: Judicial Activism on the Right |publisher=Hill and Wang |year=2003 |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/rehnquistcourtju00schw |isbn=978-0-8090-8074-8 }}
• Stern, Seth, and Stephen Wermiel. Justice Brennan: liberal champion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), 674 pages; detailed scholarly biography
• {{cite book |last=Tushnet |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Tushnet |title=A Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law |publisher=W. W. Norton Co. |year=2005 |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/courtdividedrehn00tush |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-393-32757-1 }}
• {{cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |author-link=Melvin Urofsky |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=Garland |year=1994 |location=New York |page=590 |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration }}
• {{cite book |last=Woodward |first=Robert |author-link=Bob Woodward |author2=Armstrong, Scott |author-link2=Scott Armstrong (journalist) |title=The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court |year=1979 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-380-52183-8|title-link=The Brethren (non-fiction) }}
• Wermiel, Stephen, and Seth Stern. Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010) 688pp [https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Brennan-Champion-Seth-Stern/dp/0547149255/ excerpt and text search] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731193231/https://www.amazon.com/Justice-Brennan-Champion-Seth-Stern/dp/0547149255 |date=July 31, 2021 }}, based on Brennan's case notes and 50 hours of interviews
• [http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/GovernmentPolitics/WhiteHouse/SpeechesRemarks/medal-of-freedom-ceremony Remarks by the President in Ceremony Honoring Medal of Freedom Recipients – November 30, 1993] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608002750/http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/GovernmentPolitics/WhiteHouse/SpeechesRemarks/medal-of-freedom-ceremony |date=June 8, 2010 }}

{{refend}}

• Caballero, Raymond. McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.

{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}

• {{C-SPAN|46}}
• [https://vault.fbi.gov/William%20Brennan%20Jr.%20%28US%20Supreme%20Court%20Justice%29%20 William Brennan Jr. FBI file] at vault.fbi.gov
• {{FJC Bio|249|nid=1378211|name=William Joseph Brennan Jr.}}
• [https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/#/arlington-national/search/results/1/CgdCcmVubmFuEgdXaWxsaWFt/ Arlington National Cemetery]

{{s-start}}

{{s-legal}}

{{s-bef|before=Sherman Minton}}

{{s-ttl|title=Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|years=1956–1990}}

{{s-aft|after=David Souter}}

{{s-end}}

{{SCOTUS Justices}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brennan, William J. Jr.}}

Category:1906 births

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