Justice Stevens: Matchless Enforcer of Safeguards for the Vulnerable

The National Senior Citizens Law Center expresses admiration and gratitude to Justice John Paul Stevens for his matchless contributions to the rule of law and equal justice throughout his 34 years on the Supreme Court.   

“In particular,” said Paul Nathanson, NSCLC Executive Director, “we salute Justice Stevens for his faithful enforcement of laws enacted to protect vulnerable populations and individuals, including low-income older Americans, often in the teeth of opposition from powerful interests.”  

Again and again, Justice Stevens reiterated that “judges must always remain faithful to the intent of the legislature,” and construe laws in accord with “their underlying policies and purposes” – a seemingly obvious principle that the current Supreme Court has too often ignored.  For example, at the end of the last term, in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., a 5-4 majority radically changed and severely weakened equal opportunity protections for older workers.  Justice Stevens’ dissent in that case demonstrated that the majority’s “unabashed law-making” could not be squared with Congress’ purpose in enacting the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

While eloquent in dissent, Justice Stevens will be even more missed for his ability to persuade a majority of his colleagues of the correctness of his legal analysis in pivotal cases.  In 2004 and 2005, for example, Justice Stevens wrote majority opinions that reaffirmed Congress’ broad authority to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment and to regulate interstate commerce.  His opinions in these cases halted a decade-long pattern of 5-4 decisions that eviscerated congressional authority in the name of states’ rights.  During the most recent term, in late 2008 and 2009, Justice Stevens similarly broke a succession of prior decisions that had threatened to hand-cuff state governments’ authority to protect citizens from abusive business practices. 

Contact: Simon Lazarus, NSCLC Public Policy Counsel.  202-236-5064, Simonlaz@comcast.net