BRENNAN, WILLIAM J(OSEPH), JR.

born April 25, 1906, Newark, N.J., U.S. died July 24, 1997, Arlington, Va. associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (195690). Brennan studied law under Felix Frankfurter at the Harvard Law School and graduated in 1931 to join a Newark law firm. He specialized in labour law and, except for military service during the war, practiced until his appointment in 1949 to the New Jersey Superior Court. He was named to the appellate division in 1950 and to the state Supreme Court in 1952. His service on the state bench was marked by his administrative skill in speeding litigation and clearing a calendar severely in arrears. He was named to the U.S. Supreme Court by Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 despite his Democratic party affiliation. A liberal constructionist and articulate defender of the Bill of Rights, Brennan was nonetheless able to secure general consensus among the justices by narrow construction of constitutional questions. He is remembered for his role in a series of obscenity cases beginning with Roth v. United States (1957) (the most famous of which was Ginzburg v. United States), many of which broadened the protection accorded to publishers but which also showed an attempt to balance individual freedoms with the interests of the community. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) Brennan wrote for the court that even false statements about public officials were entitled to protection under the 1st and 14th Amendments unless actual malice could be demonstrated. Brennan was a strong believer in the importance of an independent judiciary and of the impact of procedure upon substantive rights. These concerns informed his opinions in the loyalty oath cases; in his dissent in State v. Tune (1953), in which the defendant was denied a copy of the confession; and in Jencks v. United States (1957), in which Brennan gave the court's opinion, establishing a defendant's right to examine the reports of government witnesses. In his dissents in Ker v. California and Lopez v. United States (both 1963), Brennan argued for the right to privacy as implicit in the 4th Amendment. His decision for the court in Baker v. Carr (1962) provided the grounds for national legislative redistricting. Many Supreme Court analysts found Brennan's decisions to be among the most influential in the history of the Supreme Court. In addition to his roles redefining obscenity and libel, expanding individual rights, and reopportioning political boundaries, his decisions, which numbered more than 1,200, opposed the death penalty and supported abortion, affirmative action, and school desegregation.