Byron Raymond White
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office April 16, 1962 – June 28, 1993
Nominated by	John F. Kennedy
Preceded by	Charles Evans Whittaker
Succeeded by	Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Born	June 8, 1917(1917-06-08) Fort Collins, Colorado
Died	April 15, 2002 (aged 84) Denver, Colorado

Byron Raymond White (June 8, 1917 – April 15, 2002) won fame both as a football running back and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Events 68 - The Roman Senate accepts emperor Galba. 536 - St Silverius becomes Pope (probable Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1450 - Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. A running back ( RB) is the position of a player on an American or Canadian football team who usually lines up in the offensive backfield. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he served until his retirement in 1993. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of He was married to Marion Lloyd Stearns in 1946 and the father of two children, Charles (Barney) Byron White and Nancy Pitkin White.

He was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, and died in Denver at the age of 84 from complications of pneumonia. The City of Fort Collins, a Home Rule Municipality situated on the Cache la Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, is the County seat The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. The City and County of Denver (pronounced /ˈdɛnvɚ/ is the Capital and the most populous city of Colorado, in the United States

Education

White attended the University of Colorado, where he was a star football player and earned a degree in 1938. The University of Colorado at Boulder ( CU-Boulder, UCB officially Colorado and CU colloquially is the Flagship University He won a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford (Hertford College). Rhodes Scholarship Rhodes scholar redirects here Rhodes Scholar redirects here Rhodes scholars The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. After World War II, he attended Yale Law School, graduating with honors in 1946. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Yale Law School, or YLS, is the Law school of Yale University in New Haven Connecticut. During his years at Yale Law, he served as Chairman of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union, preceded by Homer Daniels Babbidge and succeeded by Johnston Redmond Livingston. Parties The Union is an umbrella organization that currently contains seven Parties the Liberal Party (Lib the Party of the Left (PoL the Progressive Party (Prog the Independent ^[1]

Football

White was a star football player for the Colorado Buffaloes, where he acquired the nickname "Whizzer," which he later came to despise. A touchdown is the primary method of scoring in American and Canadian football. All-Pro is a term mostly used in the NFL for the best players of each position during that season This is a list of all NFL players who have had outstanding performances throughout the 1940s and have been compiled onto this fantasy group American football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, is a competitive Team sport known for mixing strategy with The University of Colorado at Boulder sponsors 16 varsity sports teams After graduation he signed with the NFL's Pittsburgh Pirates (now Steelers), playing there during the 1938 season. The National Football League ( NFL) is the largest professional American football league. Regular season Schedule Game Summaries Week 1 (Friday September 9 1938 Detroit Lions at Titan Stadium He took 1939 off to study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, but returned to play for the Detroit Lions from 1940-41. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Rhodes Scholarship Rhodes scholar redirects here Rhodes Scholar redirects here Rhodes scholars The Detroit Lions are an American football team based in Detroit Michigan. In three NFL seasons, he played in 33 games. He led the league in rushing yards in 1938 and 1940. His career was cut short when he entered the United States Navy during World War II; after the war, he elected to attend law school rather than returning to football. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. The College Football Hall of Fame, located in South Bend Indiana, USA is a hall of fame and museum devoted to College football. ^[1]

Military service

During World War II, White served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy stationed in the Pacific Theatre. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO was the World War II military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it a geographic scope He wrote the intelligence report on the sinking of future President John F. Kennedy's PT-109. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Specifications PT-109 belonged to the PT 103 class hundreds of which were completed between 1942 and 1945 by Elco. ^[1]

Legal career

Byron White (left) with Robert Kennedy in 1961

After serving as a law clerk to Chief Justice Fred Vinson, White returned to Denver. Law clerks have assisted Supreme Court Justices in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in the 1880s Frederick Moore Vinson ( January 22 1890 – September 8 1953) served the United States in all three branches of government

White practiced in Denver for roughly fifteen years with the law firm now known as Davis Graham & Stubbs. Davis Graham Stubbs is a large law firm based in Denver, USA It was founded in 1915 and employs 100 attorneys This was a time in which the Denver business community flourished, and White rendered legal service to that flourishing community. White was for the most part a transactional attorney. He drafted contracts and advised insolvent companies, and he also argued the occasional case in court. ^[1]

During the United States presidential election, 1960, White put his football celebrity to use as chair of John F. The United States presidential election of 1960 marked the end of Dwight D Kennedy's campaign in Colorado. During the Kennedy administration, White served as United States Deputy Attorney General, the number two man in the Justice Department, under Robert F. Kennedy. United States Deputy Attorney General is the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20 1925 – June 6 1968 also called RFK, was the United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a Acquiring renown within the Kennedy Administration for his humble manner and sharp mind, he was appointed by Kennedy in 1962 to succeed Justice Charles Evans Whittaker, who retired for disability. Charles Evans Whittaker ( February 22, 1901 &ndash November 26, 1973) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from

Supreme Court

Byron White swearing in new Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as wife Virginia Lamp Thomas looks on. Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American Jurist. He has been serving as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Virginia Lamp Thomas (born February 23, 1957) is the wife of United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and a consultant at the

During his service on the high court, White wrote 994 opinions. His votes and opinions on the bench reflect an ideology that has been notoriously difficult for popular journalists and legal scholars alike to pin down. White often took a narrow, fact-specific view of cases before the Court and generally refused to make broad pronouncements on constitutional doctrine. In the tradition of the New Deal, White frequently supported a broad view of governmental powers (see New York v. The New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D United States 488 U. S. 1041 (1992) (White, J. , concurring in part and dissenting in part)). He consistently voted against creating constitutional restrictions on the police, dissenting in the landmark 1966 case of Miranda v. Arizona; in his dissent in that case he noted that aggressive police practices enhance the individual rights of law-abiding citizens. Miranda v Arizona (consolidated with Westover v United States, Vignera v His jurisprudence has sometimes been praised for adhering to the doctrine of judicial restraint. Judicial restraint is a theory of Judicial interpretation that encourages Judges to limit the exercise of their own power (See Dennis Hutchinson, "Two Cheers for Judicial Restraint: Justice White and the Role of the Supreme Court," 74 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1409 (2003)).

Substantive due process doctrine

Frequently a critic of the doctrine of "substantive due process," which involves the judiciary reading substantive content into the term "liberty" in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment, White dissented in the controversial 1973 case of Roe v. Wade. Due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that a person has a right to receive notice and be heard in an orderly proceeding in order to protect his or her Roe v Wade, 410 US 113 (1973 is a controversial United States Supreme Court case that resulted in a Landmark decision regarding But White voted to strike down a state ban on contraceptives in the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut, although he did not join the majority opinion, which famously asserted a "right of privacy" on the basis of the "penumbras" of the Bill of Rights. Griswold v Connecticut, 381 US 479 ( 1965) was a Landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the White and Rehnquist were the only dissenters from the Court's decision in Roe, though White's dissent used stronger language, suggesting that Roe was "an exercise in raw judicial power" and criticizing the decision for "interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life. " White, who usually adhered firmly to the doctrine of stare decisis, remained a critic of Roe throughout his term on the bench. Stare decisis is a common law doctrine under which judges are obligated to follow the precedents established in prior decisions (See Thornburg v. American Coll. of Obst. & Gyn. 476 U. S. 747 (1986) (White, J. , dissenting))

White explained his general views on the validity of substantive due process at length in his dissent in Moore v. City of East Cleveland:

The Judiciary, including this Court, is the most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or even the design of the Constitution. Realizing that the present construction of the Due Process Clause represents a major judicial gloss on its terms, as well as on the anticipation of the Framers, and that much of the underpinning for the broad, substantive application of the Clause disappeared in the conflict between the Executive and the Judiciary in the 1930's and 1940's, the Court should be extremely reluctant to breathe still further substantive content into the Due Process clause so as to strike down legislation adopted by a State or city to promote its welfare. This article is about the literary term For other uses see Gloss (disambiguation. Whenever the Judiciary does so, it unavoidably pre-empts for itself another part of the governance of the country without express constitutional authority.

White parted company with Rehnquist in strongly supporting the Supreme Court decisions striking down laws that discriminated on the basis of sex, agreeing with Justice William J. Brennan in 1973's Frontiero v. Richardson that laws discriminating on the basis of sex should be subject to strict scrutiny. William Joseph Brennan Jr ( April 25, 1906 &ndash July 24, 1997) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Frontiero v Richardson,, was an Equal Protection case in which the Supreme Court decided that benefits given by the United States military However, only four justices signed on to Brennan's opinion in Frontiero; in later cases gender discrimination cases would be subjected to intermediate scrutiny (see Craig v. Boren). Craig v Boren,, was the first case in which a majority of the United States Supreme Court determined that statutory or administrative sex classifications had to

White wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law against a substantive due process attack. Bowers v Hardwick,, was a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia Sodomy law that criminalized The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule White's opinion in Bowers was typical of White's fact-specific, deferential style of deciding cases: White's opinion treated the issue in that case as presenting only the question of whether homosexuals had a fundamental right to engage in sexual activity, even though the statute in Bowers potentially applied to heterosexual sodomy (see Bowers, 478 U. S. 186, 188, n. 1). After White's retirement, Bowers was overruled by the 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas. Lawrence v Texas, 539 US 558 ( 2003) was a landmark United States Supreme Court case

Death penalty

White took a middle course on the issue of the death penalty: he was one of five justices who voted in Furman v. Georgia (1972) to strike down several state capital punishment statutes, voicing concern over the arbitrariness with which the death penalty was administered. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. Furman v Georgia, was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty The Furman decision ended capital punishment in the U.S. until 1977, when Gary Gilmore, who decided not to appeal his death sentence, was killed by firing squad. Capital punishment of a Felon in the United States, in modern times is employed and in practice only in cases involving murder Gary Mark Gilmore ( December 4, 1940 — January 17, 1977) was an American Criminal and Spree killer White, however, was not against the death penalty in all forms: he voted to uphold the death penalty statutes at issue in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), even the mandatory death penalty schemes struck down by the Court. Gregg v Georgia, Proffitt v Florida, Jurek v Texas, Woodson v

White accepted the position that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution required that all punishments be "proportional" to the crime (see Harmelin v. The Eighth Amendment ( Amendment VIII) to the United States Constitution is part of the United States Bill of Rights which took effect in 1791 Michigan, 501 U. S. 957 (1991) (White, J. , dissenting)); thus, he wrote the opinion in Coker v. Georgia (1977), which invalidated the death penalty for rape of a 16-year old married woman. Coker v Georgia,, held that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbade the Death penalty for the crime of rape of an adult woman

White however thought that imposing the death penalty on minors was constitutional, as he was one of the three dissenters in Thompson v. Oklahoma, a case that declared that the death penalty as applied to offenders below 16 years old was unconstitutional. In law the term minor (also infant or infancy) is used to refer to a person who is under the age in which one legally assumes Adulthood and is legally Thompson v Oklahoma, 487 US 815 ( 1988) was the first case since the moratorium on Capital punishment was lifted in the United States

Abortion

Byron White was a dissenter in the Roe v. Wade decision castigating the majority for holding that the U. Roe v Wade, 410 US 113 (1973 is a controversial United States Supreme Court case that resulted in a Landmark decision regarding S. Constitution "values the convenience, whim or caprice of the putative mother more than the life or potential life of the fetus. "

Civil rights

White consistently supported the Court's post-Brown attempts to fully desegregate public schools, even through the controversial line of forced busing cases. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (1954 was a Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier (See Milliken v. Bradley (White, J. Milliken v Bradley, 418 US 717 ( 1974) was an important United States Supreme Court case dealing with the planned Desegregation busing , dissenting)). He voted to uphold affirmative action remedies to racial inequality in an education setting in the famous Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case of 1978. Affirmative action in the United States|Employment equity (Canada|Reservation in India|Numerus clausus The term affirmative action describes many policies aimed at a historically Regents of the University of California v Bakke, 438 US 265 (1978 was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on Affirmative Though White voted to uphold federal affirmative action programs in cases such as Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U. S. 547 (1990) (later overruled by Adarand Constructors v. Peña, 515 U. Adarand Constructors Inc v Peña,, is a United States Supreme Court case which held that all racial classifications imposed by whatever federal state S. 200 (1995)), White voted to strike down an affirmative action plan regarding state contracts in Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989). City of Richmond v JA Croson Co, 488 US 469 ( 1989) was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the city council

White dissented in Runyon v. McCrary (1976), which held that federal law prohibited private schools from discriminating on the basis of race. Runyon v McCrary, 427 US 160 ( 1976) was a case heard before the United States Supreme Court which held that federal law prohibited private White argued that the legislative history of Title 42 U. S. C. § 1981 (popularly known as the "Ku Klux Klan Act") indicated that the Act was not designed to prohibit private racial discrimination, but only state-sponsored racial discrimination (as had been held in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883). The Civil Rights Cases, 109 US 3 ( 1883) were a group of five similar cases consolidated into one issue for the United States Supreme Court White was concerned about the potential far-reaching impact of holding private racial discrimination illegal, which if taken to its logical conclusion might ban many varied forms of voluntary self-segregation, including social and advocacy groups that limited their membership to blacks. See Runyon, 427 U. S. 160, 212 (White, J. , dissenting) ("Whether such conduct should be condoned or not, whites and blacks will undoubtedly choose to form a variety of associational relationships pursuant to contracts which exclude members of the other race. Social clubs, black and white, and associations designed to further the interests of blacks or whites are but two examples"). Runyon was essentially overruled by 1989's Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, which itself was overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a United States statute that was passed in response to a series of United States Supreme Court decisions limiting the rights of employees

Court operations and retirement

White with other members of the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals

White frequently urged that the Supreme Court should consider cases when federal appeals courts were in conflict on issues of federal law, believing that a primary role of the Supreme Court was to resolve such conflicts. Thus, White voted to grant certiorari more often than many of his colleagues, and he wrote numerous opinions dissenting from denials of certiorari. Certiorari (ˌsɚʃioʊ('rɛri 'rɑri is a legal term in Roman, English, Philippine and American law referring to a type of Writ After White (along with fellow Justice Harry Blackmun, who also took a liberal line in voting to grant certiorari) retired, the number of cases heard each session of the Court declined steeply. Harry Andrew Blackmun ( November 12, 1908 &ndash March 4, 1999) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States See David M. O'Brien, The Rehnquist Court s Shrinking Plenary Docket, 81 Judicature 58-65 (Sept. /Oct. 1997).

White disliked the politics of Supreme Court appointments. (See Hutchinson, Whizzer White). He retired in 1993, during Bill Clinton's presidency; Clinton appointed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to succeed him. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15 1933 Brooklyn New York) is an Associate Justice on the U After retiring from the Supreme Court, White occasionally sat with lower federal courts. He maintained chambers in the federal courthouse in Denver until shortly before his death. He also served for the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals,^[2]

By the time of his death in 2002, White was the last living Warren Court Justice. The Warren Court (1953-1969 represents a period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States that was marked by one of the starkest and most dramatic From his death until the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, there were no living former Justices.

Honors

The NFL Players Association gives the Byron "Whizzer" White award to one NFL player each year for his charity work. Michael McCrary, who was involved in Runyon v. McCrary, grew up to be a professional football player and won the Byron "Whizzer" White award in 2001.

The federal courthouse in Denver that houses the Tenth Circuit is named after Justice White. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is a federal court with Appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts

Justice White was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W. Bush. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is along with the equivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States.

White was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame on July 14, 2007. Charter Members University of Colorado at Boulder (left 1938 to form the Mountain States Conference) Colorado State University Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ^[3]

References