ASSOCIATE JUSTICE WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS - SUPREME COURT CARD SIGNED 03/13/1945 - HFSID 293477

WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS
His signature on a Supreme Court card, affixed to a sheet bearing newspaper photos of himself and Justice Robert Jackson
Supreme Court Card signed: "Wm O. Douglas/ Mar. 13, 1945", 4¼x3¼, 8½x11 overall. Accompanied by a newspaper clipping and photos of Supreme Court Justices Douglas and Jackson, with a caption calling them prospective Truman nominees for Chief Justice. William Orville Douglas (1898-1980), a former law school professor at Columbia and Yale, served on the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1933-1939. Nominated as an associate justice of the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, Douglas served for 36 years and seven months,the longest of any justice up until that point. He was strongly libertarian in his opinions, distrustful of establishments of all types, and considered himself a voice for the voiceless and powerless. Douglas was seriously considered for the Democratic Party's Vice Presidential nomination in 1944 and 1948, and is believed to have coveted the presidency. Neither Douglas nor Justice Robert H. Jackson, nor a third bruited justice, Hugo Black, received Truman's nomination for Chief Justice. Noting the intense rivalry among those three Justices, Truman instead gave the nod to his treasury secretary, Fred M. Vinson. From the private collection of Ralph Errington Ward (1926-2009). Ward, a fighter pilot and squadron commander in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II, went on to become President and C.E.O. of Cheseborough-Ponds, Inc., transforming the cosmetics firm into a major home product conglomerate. Fine condition.