In any discussion about United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, you’re likely to hear him labeled in a variety of ways—as a brilliant “judge’s judge,” the highly successful leader of the Court’s more liberal wing, the prolific “maverick,” and a shrewd questioner from the bench. You might also hear him described simply as a polite and humble Midwesterner, bow-tie aficionado and diehard Cubs fan. Yet while Justice Stevens is and was all of these things, there is another important title he richly deserves yet often does not receive—Justice Stevens, the excellent writer.
When considering Justice Stevens’s writing on the Court, much of the attention is placed on his process rather than his final product. It is well known, for example, that he was one of the only justices on the Court who consistently wrote his own first drafts—a practice, he once explained, that “helps you think through a case, and when you write it out yourself, you often learn things about the case that you hadn’t realized.” He is also often praised for his in-depth loyalty to the facts and his resistance to expanding a case into something it is not. As he once stated: “[I]t is not our job to apply laws that have not yet been written.”
But it was at this point, after he parsed the facts and homed in on the legal issues, that Justice Stevens, the Writer, would take over. Having made up his mind regarding the proper outcome of the case, Justice Stevens would masterfully employ the many implements of the writer’s toolbox—delightful turns of phrases, creative analogies, memorable word choices and impassioned moments of eloquence—to make his points. Luckily, thanks to his exceptionally long tenure on the Court and his propensity to author separate opinions, he left us with a treasure trove of his writings to enjoy.
In this essay, I strive to celebrate the unsung writing talents of Justice Stevens. This is by no means meant to be a serious linguistic study of his writings, nor is it an exhaustive overview. My goal, rather, is simply to highlight his skills as a wordsmith with some of the most memorable examples. What follows is a collection of snippets of Justice Stevens’s writing drawn from my own reservoir of personal favorites and an informal survey of other former Stevens clerks.