A report on Potter Stewart

Official portrait, 1976

American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981.

- Potter Stewart
Official portrait, 1976

41 related topics with Alpha

Overall

I know it when I see it

4 links

Colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters.

Colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters.

The phrase was used in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio.

Sandra Day O'Connor

3 links

Retired American attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006.

Retired American attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006.

Supreme Court justice-nominee Sandra Day O'Connor talks with President Ronald Reagan outside the White House, July 15, 1981.
O'Connor is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger as her husband John O'Connor looks on.
Justice O'Connor presents Alberto Gonzales to the audience after swearing him in as U.S. Attorney General, as Becky Gonzales looks on.
Justice O'Connor and her husband John O'Connor with President George W. Bush in May 2004.
Justice O'Connor's letter to Bush, dated July 1, 2005, announcing her retirement
O'Connor in 2008 with Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan. Kagan became the fourth female justice on the Court.
The first four women Supreme Court justices: O'Connor, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan, October 1, 2010. O'Connor was retired when the photograph was taken.

On July 7, 1981, Reagan – who had pledged during his 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Court – announced he would nominate O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Potter Stewart.

Jacobellis v. Ohio

4 links

United States Supreme Court decision handed down in 1964 involving whether the state of Ohio could, consistent with the First Amendment, ban the showing of the Louis Malle film The Lovers (Les Amants), which the state had deemed obscene.

United States Supreme Court decision handed down in 1964 involving whether the state of Ohio could, consistent with the First Amendment, ban the showing of the Louis Malle film The Lovers (Les Amants), which the state had deemed obscene.

The most famous opinion from Jacobellis, however, was Justice Potter Stewart's concurrence, stating that the Constitution protected all obscenity except "hard-core pornography".

Chief Justice Earl Warren

Warren Court

2 links

The period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States during which Earl Warren served as Chief Justice.

The period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States during which Earl Warren served as Chief Justice.

Chief Justice Earl Warren
Chief Justice Earl Warren
The Supreme Court as was composed between 1958 and 1962. Top (l-r): Charles E. Whittaker, John M. Harlan, William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart. Bottom (l-r): William O. Douglas, Hugo L. Black, Earl Warren, Felix Frankfurter, Tom C. Clark.
A photo taken shortly after Justice Goldberg joined the Court. Top (l-r): Byron White, William J. Brennan Jr., Potter Stewart, and Arthur Goldberg Bottom (l-r): Tom C. Clark, Hugo Black, Earl Warren, William O. Douglas, and John Marshall Harlan II. These court members served together from 1962-1965

Another vacancy took place when Reed retired in 1957 and was replaced by Charles Evans Whittaker, and then Burton retired in 1958, with Eisenhower appointing Potter Stewart in his place.

Rose Fosco, who before 1968 posed as a woman seeking an abortion during sting operations for the Chicago Police Department. As an undercover officer she worked to break up illegal abortion rings.

Roe v. Wade

3 links

Landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States granted the right to have an abortion.

Landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States granted the right to have an abortion.

Rose Fosco, who before 1968 posed as a woman seeking an abortion during sting operations for the Chicago Police Department. As an undercover officer she worked to break up illegal abortion rings.
The judicial replacements
George Frampton, law clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun during the 1971–72 term
Justice Harry Blackmun, the author of Roe majority opinion
2021 Women's March, many speakers bemoaned a looming threat to Roe.
March for Life, 2020
Judge Edith Jones
Oral hearing for the abortion decision, November 18, 1974
Burger Court in 1976
1991–1993 Rehnquist Court
The Rehnquist Court in 1998; the members pictured are the ones who decided Stenberg v. Carhart. Justice Ginsburg replaced Justice White.
Judge David Lawson
The Roberts Court in 2010; eight of the nine members pictured are the ones who decided Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. Justice Scalia (front row, second left) died before the oral argument.

Chief Justice Warren Burger asked Justice Potter Stewart and Justice Blackmun to determine whether Roe and Doe, among others, should be heard as scheduled.

Warren E. Burger

4 links

American lawyer and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986.

American lawyer and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986.

President Richard Nixon introduces Burger as his nominee for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Official portrait of Warren Burger
With Betty Ford between them, Chief Justice Burger swears in President Gerald Ford following the resignation of Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974
Burger's burial site, next to his wife's, at Arlington National Cemetery

In particular, Associate Justice Potter Stewart, who had been considered a candidate to succeed Warren as chief justice, was so discontented with Burger that he became the primary source for Woodward and Armstrong when they wrote The Brethren.

Louis Malle

3 links

French film director, screenwriter, and producer.

French film director, screenwriter, and producer.

However, the court could not agree on the definition of "obscene", which caused Justice Potter Stewart to utter his "I know it when I see it" opinion, perhaps the most famous single line associated with the court.

Coat of arms of Yale Law School

Yale Law School

1 links

Law school of Yale University, a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut.

Law school of Yale University, a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut.

Coat of arms of Yale Law School
Sculptural ornamentation on the Sterling Law Building
Yale Law School Class of 1883
Four African-American students, Class of 1921
Yale Law School is housed in the Sterling Law Building, erected in 1931. Modeled after the English Inns of Court, the law building is located at the heart of Yale's campus and contains a law library, a dining hall, and a courtyard.
Reading room of the law school's library
Dining Hall of the Yale Law School

Alumni also include current United States Supreme Court associate justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as a number of former justices, including Abe Fortas, Potter Stewart and Byron White; several heads of state, including Karl Carstens, the fifth president of Germany, Jose P. Laurel, the third president of the Republic of the Philippines; and Peter Mutharika, the immediate former president of Malawi; five current U.S. senators; the former governor of California and immediate former governor of Rhode Island and current United States Secretary of Commerce; and the current deans of three of the top fourteen-ranked law schools in the United States: Virginia, Cornell, and UCLA.

Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910

Obscenity

2 links

Any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.

Any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time.

Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910
The 18th century book Fanny Hill has been subject to obscenity trials at various times (image: plate XI: The bathing party; La baignade)

Former Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court of the United States, in attempting to classify what material constituted exactly "what is obscene," famously wrote, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced ... [b]ut I know it when I see it...."

Chief Justice Warren Burger

Burger Court

1 links

The period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1969 to 1986, when Warren Burger served as Chief Justice of the United States.

The period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1969 to 1986, when Warren Burger served as Chief Justice of the United States.

Chief Justice Warren Burger
Chief Justice Warren Burger
With Carter in 1977

The Burger Court thus began on June 23, 1969, with Burger and seven veterans of the Warren Court: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, and Thurgood Marshall.