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William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. His term, lasting 36 years and 209 days (1939–75), is the longest term in the history of the Supreme Court. Douglas holds a number of records as a Supreme Court Justice, including the most opinions. He was the 79th person appointed and confirmed to the bench of that court. In 1975 ''Time'' magazine called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court". ==Early life and education== Douglas was born in 1898 in Maine Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, the son of Julia Bickford (Fisk) and William Douglas, an itinerant Scottish Presbyterian minister from Pictou County, Nova Scotia.〔. Ernest Kerr, ''Imprint of the Maritimes'', 1959, Boston: Christopher Publishing, p. 83.〕 His family moved to California, and then to Cleveland, Washington. His father died in Portland, Oregon, in 1904, when Douglas was six years old. After moving the family from town to town in the West, his mother, with three young children, settled with them in Yakima, Washington. William, like the rest of the Douglas family, worked at odd jobs to earn extra money, and a college education appeared to be unaffordable. He was the valedictorian at Yakima High School and did well enough in school to earn a scholarship to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.〔''Current Biography 1941'', pp233–235〕 While at Whitman, Douglas became a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He worked at various jobs while attending school, including as a waiter and janitor during the school year, and at a cherry orchard in the summer. Picking cherries, Douglas would say later, inspired him to a legal career. He once said of his early interest in the law: Douglas was elected Phi Beta Kappa,〔(Supreme Court Justices Who Are Phi Beta Kappa Members ), Phi Beta Kappa website, accessed Oct 4, 2009.〕 participated on the debate team, and was elected as student body president in his final year. After graduating in 1920 with a B.A. in English and economics, he taught English and Latin at Yakima high schools for the next two years, hoping to earn enough to attend law school. "Finally," he said, "I decided it was impossible to save enough money by teaching and I said to hell with it."〔 He traveled to New York (taking a job tending sheep on a Chicago-bound train, in return for free passage), with hopes to attend the Columbia Law School.〔 Douglas drew on his Beta Theta Pi membership to help him survive in New York, as he stayed at one of its houses and was able to borrow $75 from a fraternity brother from Washington, enough to enroll at Columbia.〔''Current Biography 1941'', p234〕 Six months later, Douglas' funds were running out. The appointments office at the law school told him that a New York firm wanted a student to help prepare a correspondence course for law. Douglas earned $600 for his work, enabling him to stay in school. Hired for similar projects, he saved $1,000 by semester's end.〔 He graduated fifth in his class in 1925, although he later claimed to have been second. Douglas traveled to La Grande, Oregon, to marry Mildred Riddle, whom he had known in Yakima. After their return to New York, he started work at the firm of Cravath, DeGersdorff, Swaine and Wood (later Cravath, Swaine & Moore). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William O. Douglas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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