Wiley Rutledge
American Supreme Court justice (1894-1949) · United States · On the map · Academics · Died at 55
Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr. was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1943 to 1949. The ninth and final justice appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he is best known for his impassioned defenses of civil liberties.
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Photos 9
Rutledge in 1939, while on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Rutledge's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, signed by Roosevelt
This 1946 political cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman mocks the squabbling that abounded on the Supreme Court during Rutledge's tenure.
John Paul Stevens, one of Rutledge's law clerks, later served on the Supreme Court in his own right.
Testimony is heard at the war crimes trial of Tomoyuki Yamashita in Manila on October 29, 1945. In Rutledge's view, Yamashita's conviction was the result of egregious violations of the Constitution.
Japanese Americans standing in front of posted internment orders. Rutledge twice voted to uphold the internment program.
Portrait by Harold Mathews Brett, 1947About this person
Rutledge favored broad interpretations of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause, and he argued that the Bill of Rights applied in its totality to the states. He participated in several noteworthy cases involving the intersection of individual freedoms and the government's wartime powers. Rutledge served on the Court until his death at the age of fifty-five. Legal scholars have generally thought highly of the justice, although the brevity of his tenure has minimized his impact on history.
