William J. Brennan Jr.

William Joseph Brennan Jr. (April 25, 1906 – July 24, 1997) was a Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990. He was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1906 as the second of eight children to Irish immigrants. He attended Harvard Law School, was a U.S. Army Major during World War II, and was a justice for a New Jersey superior court and then for the New Jersey Supreme Court before he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, where he was a part of SCOTUS's liberal wing and where he wrote more than 1,200 opinions over the years. After being on SCOTUS for over 30 years, he retired from SCOTUS in 1990 due to declining health and was replaced by David Souter. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1993 and died in 1997 at the age of 91 after he fell and broke his hip.