1899-1971
Supreme Court Justice

Leading the Opposition.

Among the justices who sat on the U.S. Supreme Court during the judicial revolutions of the 1960s, Justice John Marshall Harlan led the opposition to the activist program of the Warren court majority.

Background.

Harlan was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the most important appeals court in the country. When Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson died late that year, Eisenhower chose Harlan to fill the seat. His appointment was held up by the Senate until March 1955, because some senators were concerned that Harlan's time at Oxford University (he was a Rhodes scholar and actually received his B.A. and M.A. from Balliol College) made him too much of a believer in "world government." The Senate voted to confirm him 71 votes to 11.

Dissenting Opinions.