Below is an excerpt from an interview Sean O Murchu conducted with Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in June 1990, just one month prior to Justice Brennan retiring from the Supreme Court. Justice Brennan was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower and served 33 years as an influential member of the highest court in the nation. As we await the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away on September 18, 2020 we look back on the contributions of Justice Brennan.
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Justice William Brennan, Jr.
On April 25, 1990 William Joseph Brennan, Jr was 84 years old. An associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States for the past 33 years, he is considered – ruefully, by his many conservative detractors – to be one of the most influential shapers of public policy in the country.
A native of Newark, New Jersey, the son of Irish immigrants, Brennan was appointed to the the court by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956; having served seven years on the New Jersey Superior and Supreme Court. Reportedly, Eisenhower, a Republican, subsequently regretted the appointment of both Brennan and Chief Justice Earl Warren as his two “mistakes.” Both turned out to be architects of the Supreme Courts progressive agenda, covering a slew of decisions on desegregation, sexual equality, obscenity, rights of the accused, church-state relations, liberal law, etc., aimed especially at broadening the provisions and safeguards of the First, Fourth, and Fourtee