Justice Charles Evans Whittaker
Today’s Justice of the Day is: CHARLES EVANS WHITTAKER. Justice Whittaker was born on this day, February 22, in 1901.
Justice Whittaker was born near Troy, Kansas. He graduated from the Kansas City School of Law (today called the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law) with an LL.B. in 1924.
Immediately after graduation, Justice Whittaker began a 30 year-long career in private practice in Kansas City, Missouri, the state from which he would be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, holding that office until he was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in 1956, where he would remain until his elevation to the SCUS. After leaving the bench, he went on to be an Arbitrator with the General Motors Corporation in 1965 and an Advisor to the United States Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct in 1966.
Justice Whittaker was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on March 2, 1957, to a seat vacated by Justice Stanley Forman Reed. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, and received his commission on March 22. Justice Whittaker took the Judicial Oath to officially join the SCUS on March 25, and served out his entire tenure on the Warren Court. He assumed senior status on March 31, 1962, and his service was terminated on September 30, 1965, due to his resignation.
Justice Whittaker might well be the least influential of the Justices who were appointed in the second half of the 20th century. His relatively limited impact on the SCUS can be at least partly attributed to the brevity of his term of service, which was cut short after the stresses of service on the bench caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown. Justice Whittaker quickly gained a reputation for being endlessly indecisive after he was appointed, another factor that greatly limited his ability to translate his Middle American conservatism into persuasive legal doctrine.