海角大神

鈥淏eware of glittering generalities,鈥� Nathaniel Nathanson used to warn his Northwestern University law students 70 years ago, stressing the importance of U.S. courts deciding cases on their specific merits, without unnecessary overreaching. One of those students was a young John Paul Stevens, who would later ascend to the Supreme Court in 1975, nominated by President Gerald Ford.聽

Justice Stevens, who died on July 16, retired from the court in 2010. His remarkably candid and heartening memoir 鈥淭he Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years鈥� was published in May. In it, he recounts his time聽at Northwestern and聽wonders if perhaps Nathanson learned his maxim while clerking for Justice Louis Brandeis. 鈥淭he Court,鈥� he writes, sounding paradoxical, 鈥渟hould avoid deciding cases on constitutional grounds whenever possible.鈥澛�

That kind of puckish, mildly subversive humor runs throughout the book, which is a calm and sagacious volume rendered somewhat somber by the news of his passing. It鈥檚 often melancholy to read an author鈥檚 latest work alongside his obituaries.

鈥淭he Making of a Justice鈥� is, predictably, full of life. Justice Stevens recounts the major cases of his long career with an even-handed clarity. Readers learn the intimate details of such landmark decisions as Apprendi v. New Jersey, Bush v. Gore, and Citizens United v. FEC, and they get an immediate sense of the personalities involved, all of it presented with warmth and discretion.聽

Alongside his legal life, the author also writes of his personal pleasures and tragedies, likewise described with an understated eloquence that makes for an arresting counterpoint to 鈥淪calia Speaks,鈥� a similar book written by Stevens鈥� longtime Supreme Court sparring partner, the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Justice Stevens was widely known for a rare combination of shrewdness and genuine kindness, and that same combination fills his book. As the narrative progresses, readers see a deep thinker who was steadily reexamining his own beliefs; Justice Stevens clearly saw the 鈥渕aking鈥� in his book鈥檚 title as a lifelong process.聽

It鈥檚 a sentiment that would have been heartily echoed by one of Justice Stevens鈥� greatest forebears on the court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the subject of a lively new biography by Stephen Budiansky, 鈥淥liver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas.鈥� Budiansky moves his narrative briskly through all the arresting highlights of Holmes鈥� life: his youthful service 鈥� and near death 鈥� in the Union Army ranks at the Battle of Ball鈥檚 Bluff and Antietam, nearly 20 years on the Massachusetts high court, and his 29 years on the Supreme Court, where he wrote 873 signed opinions (still a record) and kept up a correspondence that would have exhausted many people one-third his age.聽

Holmes joined the Supreme Court in 1902 and served until his retirement in 1932, and Budiansky devotes half his book to this long stretch and its landmark cases like Schenck v. United States (the iconic 鈥渇alsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic鈥� case) and Abrams v. United States, another pivotal dissent on Holmes鈥� part, or Buck v. Bell, the forced sterilization case on which Holmes infamously wrote for the majority, 鈥淭hree generations of imbeciles are enough.鈥澛�

Budiansky writes about the legal intricacies of these and other Supreme Court cases with a clarity and energy that makes for consistently gripping reading. In 1909, former President William Howard Taft complained to a friend: 鈥淭he condition of the Supreme Court is pitiable, and yet those old fools hold with a tenacity that is most discouraging,鈥� but in 1921 Taft himself joined that collection of old fools, becoming chief justice and beginning a nine-year period alternately sparring with Holmes, whom he called 鈥渁 noisy dissenter,鈥� and quietly learning from him. It鈥檚 a thread running throughout the book: Holmes鈥� odd, aristocratic charm worked on a variety of people, from stolid, conservative Taft to the James brothers, William and Henry, to the ever-changing crowd of young people that always seemed to surround him.聽

鈥淥liver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas鈥� has more gravitas than Liva Baker鈥檚 鈥淭he Justice from Beacon Hill鈥� and more playfulness than Sheldon Novick鈥檚 鈥淗onorable Justice,鈥� both from 30 years ago; it鈥檚 possessed of a zest and omnivorous curiosity that reflects the boundless energy of its subject.聽

Like Justice Stevens, Holmes lived a long life on the public stage (Budiansky reminds his readers that Holmes met both John Quincy Adams and Alger Hiss), and it鈥檚 impressive how much of the complexity and flavor of that life is captured here in fewer than 500 pages. Holmes鈥� ideological devotion to 鈥渦nwavering fight for the principles of respect for the rule of law, judicial restraint, and the interests of the community鈥� fits comfortably with Budiansky鈥檚 engaging portrait of the antic, unpredictable, and effervescent Holmes.