Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Biography

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was a prominent American jurist who is among the most cited US Supreme court justices. He was a legal historian and philosopher who encouraged judicial restraint. He advocated the concept of “clear and present danger” as the basis for limiting free speech. Also known as ‘The Great Dissenter,’ he served as an ‘Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court’ from 1902 to 1932, and ‘Acting Chief Justice of the United States’ from January to February 1930. He had also served as an ‘Associate Justice’ and as ‘Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’ and worked as ‘Weld Professor of Law’ at ‘Harvard Law School,’ his alma mater. He is known for his long service, sharp opinions and high regard for the decisions of elected legislatures. He is considered one of the most influential American common law jurists and was honoured both in the Great Britain and the United States during his lifetime. When he retired at the age of ninety after serving in the court for thirty years, he became the oldest judge in the Supreme Court’s history. Using his experience of fighting in the ‘American Civil War,’ Holmes steered the American legal thinking toward legal realism, which he summarized as ‘The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.’