Harper’s Index
Justice served
By Jason Kelly
Photography by Dan Dry
Length of Justice John Paul Stevens’s (AB’41) tenure, the fourth longest in Supreme Court history:
34.5 years
Tenure of the longest-serving justice, William O. Douglas:
36.5 years
Stevens’s age at his planned summer retirement:
90 years, two months
Age of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the oldest justice at retirement:
90 years, 10 months
Current Chief Justice John Roberts’s age when Stevens was confirmed:
20
Number of chief justices that Stevens has served under:
3 (Burger, Rehnquist, Roberts)
Time from Stevens’s 1975 nomination to his Senate confirmation:
19 days
Questions about the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision during Stevens’s confirmation hearings:
0