Former Justice John Paul Stevens, a leading liberal for more than three decades on the U.S. Supreme Court, has died at age 99, the court says.
FILE - In this May 20, 2013 file photo, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens talks about his views and career during a forum at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Stevens, who served on the Supreme Court for nearly 35 years and became its leading liberal, has died on Tuesday, July 16, 2019, at age 99.
He influenced fellow justices to give foreign terrorism suspects held for years at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base the right to plead for their release in U.S. courts. At first considered a centrist, Stevens came to be seen as a lion of liberalism. But he rejected that characterization. He did change his views on some issues, however. He morphed from a critic of affirmative action to a supporter, and came to believe the death penalty was wrong.
Stevens was especially concerned with the plight of ordinary citizens up against the government or other powerful interests — a type of struggle he witnessed as a boy. As he read parts of that opinion aloud, Stevens’ voice wavered uncharacteristically and he repeatedly stumbled over words. For the 90-year-old who’d worried he wouldn’t know when to bow out, it was a signal. “That was the day I decided to resign,” Stevens said later. He also disclosed in his autobiography that he had suffered a mini-stroke.
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