John Paul Stevens (born 1920), appointed to the Supreme Court by President Gerald Ford in 1975, became a member of the "liberal" voting group on the Court which included Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall.

Illinois native John Paul Stevens was a Phi Beta Kappa first-in-his-class University of Chicago magna cum laude graduate and law review graduate of Northwestern University. He clerked for Supreme Court Associate Justice Wiley B. Rutledge 1947-1948. He was serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit when President Ford selected him in 1975 as his sole appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was speedily confirmed 98 to 0.

On the Court, Justice Stevens--its junior justice for almost six years until Justice Sandra Day O'Connor replaced Justice Stewart in late 1981--confounded prognosticators who thought they knew him as well as those who did not. Widely considered a "sure swing vote" in the...