The FIREBRAND

SCOTUS is ina right-wing choke hold, but a liberal conservationist judge blazed the activism trail By Dougtas Brinkley

THE CONSERVATIVES ON the US Supreme Court are considered by many to be ardent activists. And yet, truth be told, there has never been a more activist justice than William O. Douglas. Appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas was a committed conservationist, vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, best-selling author, would-be candidate for president, and, at 36-plus years, the longest-serving high court justice in American history. With all the current hand-wringing about the politicization of the judiciary, Douglas was Exhibit A in pushing his own political agenda—as a liberal, libertarian, and crusading environmentalist.

By 1954, Douglas had been on the Court for 15 years. A native of Minnesota and Washington State, he pursued his passion for nature—and for protecting the American outdoors. Between cases, he plotted campaigns to preserve Washington’s North Cascades, Alaska’s Arctic, Wyoming’s Wind River region, and Maine’s Allagash River watershed. His criticism of the government’s nuclear testing in the Nevada desert was unrelenting.

From his chambers, he investigated the howling range of coyotes and the mysteries of the ruffed grouse. He liked to quip that he would have gladly traded the honor of being on the Court for that of having collected ferns for Lewis and Clark.

The justice sometimes wore his lugsoled hiking boots on the bench. On weekends, armed with a backpack, binoculars, and floppy hat, Douglas, compact and trim with fierce blue eyes, would explore the backcountry of Virginia or Maryland, sometimes with his longtime protégé Robert F. Kennedy as his trail mate.