Katana VentraIP

Byron White

Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White (June 8, 1917 – April 15, 2002) was an American lawyer, jurist, and professional football player who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1962 until 1993. By his retirement, he was its only sitting Democrat and the last-living member of the progressive Warren Court.

This article is about the Supreme Court Justice and former football player. For the sailor, see Byron White (sailor).

Byron White

John F. Kennedy

Charles Evans Whittaker

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

John F. Kennedy

Lawrence Walsh

Nicholas Katzenbach

Byron Raymond White

(1917-06-08)June 8, 1917
Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S.

April 15, 2002(2002-04-15) (aged 84)
Denver, Colorado, U.S.

Saint John's Cathedral

Democratic

Marion Stearns
​
(m. 1946)​

Clayton Sam White (brother)

University of Colorado Boulder (BA)
Hertford College, Oxford
Yale University (LLB)

Presidential Medal of Freedom (2003)

 United States Navy

1942–1945

Lieutenant Commander

Office of Naval Intelligence

Bronze Star (2)

Halfback

6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)

187 lb (85 kg)

Wellington (Colorado)

Colorado (1935–1937)

1938 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4

1,321

1,321

3.4

11

16

301

1

Born and raised in a small homestead in Wellington, Colorado, White distinguished himself as a student athlete who came from a background of poor farmhands to become a consensus All-American halfback for the Colorado Buffaloes. After being the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1937, he was selected in the 1938 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates for the National Football League (NFL). He led the league in rushing yards during his rookie season. White graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder as class valedictorian, attaining a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. After World War II forced him to return to the United States, he matriculated at Yale Law School, played for the Detroit Lions in the 1940 and 1941 seasons while still enrolled, and served as an officer for the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre.


White graduated from law school with honors in 1946 and clerked for Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson. He eschewed work for a white-shoe firm and returned to Colorado in order to enter private practice in Denver as a transactional attorney. Minor work as the Colorado state chair of John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign led to him being unexpectedly tapped in 1961 for a position as U.S. Deputy Attorney General. He was successfully nominated by Kennedy to the Supreme Court the next year, becoming the Court's first justice from Colorado.


White espoused a pragmatic and non-doctrinaire judicial approach which strengthened the powers of the federal government, advocated for the desegregation of public schools, and upheld the use of affirmative action. Though expected to be a reliably liberal justice, he was by contrast a vociferous opponent of substantive due process, penning dissents in both Miranda v. Arizona and Roe v. Wade. White wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick (upholding the ability for states to restrict homosexual conduct) and dissented in Runyon v. McCrary (against the ability for the government to restrict racial discrimination in private schools) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Due to his unwillingness to align with either the liberal or conservative blocs, White was largely orientated with the Court's center.[1]

John F. Kennedy's letter to the Senate nominating White to the Supreme Court

John F. Kennedy's letter to the Senate nominating White to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court seen pictured on November 19, 1962. White (top left) was the Court's second most junior justice, after Arthur Goldberg, having arrived on the bench in April.

The Supreme Court seen pictured on November 19, 1962. White (top left) was the Court's second most junior justice, after Arthur Goldberg, having arrived on the bench in April.

The Supreme Court pictured in 1973, White is pictured at bottom right

The Supreme Court pictured in 1973, White is pictured at bottom right

Later years and death[edit]

After retiring from the Supreme Court, White occasionally sat with lower federal courts.[11] He maintained chambers in the federal courthouse in Denver until shortly before his death.[76] He also served for the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals.[77]


White died of pneumonia on April 15, 2002, at the age of 84.[78] He was the last living Justice to have served on the Warren Court,[76][79] and the last justice appointed by Kennedy;[80] he died the day before the fortieth anniversary of his swearing in as a Justice. From his death until the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, there were no living former justices.[11]


His remains are interred at All Souls Walk at St. John's Cathedral in Denver.[81]


Then-Chief Justice Rehnquist said White "came as close as anyone I have known to meriting Matthew Arnold's description of Sophocles: 'He saw life steadily and he saw it whole.' All of us who served with him will miss him."[82]

Personal life[edit]

White first met his wife Marion Stearns (1921–2009), the daughter of the president of the University of Colorado, when she was in high school and he was a college football player.[83] During World War II, Marion served in the WAVES while her future husband was a Navy intelligence officer. They married in 1946 and had two children: a son named Charles Byron (Barney) and a daughter named Nancy.[11]


His older brother Clayton Samuel "Sam" White (1912–2004) was also a high school valedictorian and Rhodes Scholar. He later became a physician and medical researcher, particularly on the effects of atomic bomb blasts.[9]

Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States

John F. Kennedy Supreme Court candidates

List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition

List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Chief Justice)

List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 6)

List of NCAA major college football yearly rushing leaders

List of NCAA major college football yearly scoring leaders

List of NCAA major college football yearly total offense leaders

List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Burger Court

List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court

List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Warren Court

List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office

List of United States federal judges by longevity of service

. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1962.

Eighty-Seventh Congress Second Session on Nomination of Byron R. White, of Colorado, to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

(1998). The Man Who Once Was Whizzer White: A Portrait of Justice Byron White. New York: Free Press. ISBN 9780684827940.

Hutchinson, Dennis J.

Schaeper, Thomas J.; Schaeper, Kathleen (2010). Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite. . ISBN 978-1845457211.

Berghahn Books

Tomlins, Christopher L. (2005). The United States Supreme Court: The Pursuit of Justice. Boston: . ISBN 9780618329694.

Houghton Mifflin

Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L., eds. (2013). (4th ed.). New York, NY: Facts On File, Inc. ISBN 978-0791013779.

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions

Abraham, Henry J. (1992). (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-506557-3.

Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court

Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books).  1-56802-126-7.

ISBN

Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L. (eds.). . Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0-7910-1377-4.

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions

Hall, Kermit L., ed. (1992). . New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505835-6.

The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States

Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). . Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books. ISBN 0-87187-554-3.

The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography

Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). . New York: Garland Publishing. p. 590. ISBN 0-8153-1176-1.

The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary

and Armstrong, Scott. The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (1979). ISBN 978-0-380-52183-8; ISBN 0-380-52183-0. ISBN 978-0-671-24110-0; ISBN 0-671-24110-9; ISBN 0-7432-7402-4; ISBN 978-0-7432-7402-9.

Woodward, Robert

at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Byron White

Oyez Project, U.S. Supreme Court media, Byron R. White

on C-SPAN

Appearances

Byron White's season with the 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates

Archived October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine – Byron White

University of Colorado Athletics Hall of Fame

– Life of Byron White, discussed by Dennis Hutchinson (2011)

C-SPAN

at Find a Grave

Byron White