Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Justice Holmes c. 1930
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office December 8, 1902 – January 12, 1932[1]
Nominated by	Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Horace Gray
Succeeded by	Benjamin N. Cardozo
Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
In office August 2, 1899 – December 4, 1902
Nominated by	Murray Crane
Preceded by	Walbridge Field
Succeeded by	Marcus Knowlton
Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
In office December 15, 1882 – August 2, 1899
Nominated by	John Long
Preceded by	Otis Lord
Succeeded by	William Loring
Personal details
Born	(1841-03-08)March 8, 1841 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	March 6, 1935(1935-03-06) (aged 93) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Fanny Bowditch Dixwell ​ ​ (m. 1873; died 1929)​
Parents	Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (father) Amelia Lee Jackson (mother)
Relatives	Edward Jackson Holmes (brother) Amelia Jackson Holmes (sister) Judge Charles Jackson (grandfather) Abiel Holmes (grandfather) Jonathan Jackson (great-grandfather) Edward J. Holmes (nephew)
Education	Harvard University (AB, LLB)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Brevet Colonel
Unit	20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Ball's Bluff (WIA) Peninsula Campaign Battle of Antietam (WIA) Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Chancellorsville (WIA) Battle of the Wilderness Battle of Fort Stevens

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932.^[A] Holmes is one of the most widely cited Supreme Court justices and among the most influential American judges in history, noted for his long service, pithy opinions—particularly those on civil liberties and American constitutional democracy—and deference to the decisions of elected legislatures. Holmes retired from the court at the age of 90, an unbeaten record for oldest justice on the Supreme Court.^[B] He previously served as a Brevet Colonel in the American Civil War, in which he was wounded three times, as an associate justice and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and as Weld Professor of Law at his alma mater, Harvard Law School. His positions, distinctive personality, and writing style made him a popular figure, especially with American progressives.^[2]

During his tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, to which he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, he supported the constitutionality of state economic regulation and came to advocate broad freedom of speech under the First Amendment, after, in Schenck v. United States (1919), having upheld for a unanimous court criminal sanctions against draft protestors with the memorable maxim that "free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic" and formulating the groundbreaking "clear and present danger" test.^[3] Later that same year, in his famous dissent in Abrams v. United States (1919), he wrote that "the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market ... That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment." He added that "we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death ..."^[4]

He was one of only a handful of justices known as a scholar; The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Holmes as the third-most-cited American legal scholar of the 20th century.^[5] Holmes was a legal realist, as summed up in his maxim, "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience",^[6] and a moral skeptic^[7] opposed to the doctrine of natural law. His jurisprudence and academic writing influenced much subsequent American legal thinking, including the judicial consensus upholding New Deal regulatory law and the influential American schools of pragmatism, critical legal studies, and law and economics.^{[citation needed]}

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