View source for Byron White

{{About|the Supreme Court Justice|the sailor|Byron White (sailor)}}
{{short description|Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, American football player}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Byron White
|image        = Justice White Official.jpg
|office       = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
|nominator    = [[John F. Kennedy]]
|term_start   = April 12, 1962 <!--Term start reflects commission date, not oath date-->
|term_end     = June 28, 1993
|predecessor  = [[Charles Evans Whittaker|Charles Whittaker]]
|successor    = [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]
|office1      = 6th [[United States Deputy Attorney General]]
|president1   = [[John F. Kennedy]]
|term_start1  = January 20, 1961
|term_end1    = April 16, 1962
|predecessor1 = [[Lawrence Walsh]]
|successor1   = [[Nicholas Katzenbach|Nick Katzenbach]]
|birth_name   = Byron Raymond White
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1917|6|8}}
|birth_place  = [[Fort Collins, Colorado|Fort Collins]], [[Colorado]], U.S.
|death_date   = {{death date and age|2002|4|15|1917|6|8}}
|death_place  = [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], U.S.
|resting_place= [[Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness]]
|party        = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|spouse       = {{marriage|Marion Stearns|1946}}
|children     = 2, including [[Nancy White (field hockey)|Nancy]]
|education    = [[University of Colorado Boulder]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br/>[[Hertford College, Oxford]]<br/>[[Yale University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
|allegiance   = {{flag|United States|1941}}
|branch       = {{flag|United States Navy}}
|rank         = [[File:US-O4 insignia.svg|15px]] [[Lieutenant commander (United States)|Lieutenant Commander]]
|battles      = [[World War II]]<br/>{{*}}[[Asiatic-Pacific Theater|Pacific Theater]]
|serviceyears = 1942–1945
|unit         = [[Office of Naval Intelligence]]
|mawards      = [[File:Bronze Star Medal ribbon.svg|25px]] [[Bronze Star Medal|Bronze Star]] (2)
|module       = {{Infobox NFL biography | embed = yes
|position     = [[Halfback (American football)|Halfback]]
|number       = 24
|height_ft    = 6
|height_in    = 1
|weight_lbs   = 187
|draftyear    = 1938
|draftround   = 1
|draftpick    = 4
|high_school  = [[Wellington High School (Wellington, Colorado)|Wellington (CO)]]
|college      = [[Colorado Buffaloes football|Colorado]]
|teams        =
* [[Pittsburgh Pirates (NFL)|Pittsburgh Pirates]] ([[1938 NFL season|1938]])
* [[Detroit Lions]] ([[1940 NFL season|1940]]–[[1941 NFL season|1941]])
|highlights   =
* 2× First-team [[All-Pro]] (1938, 1940)
* Second-team All-Pro (1941)
* 2× [[List of National Football League rushing champions|NFL rushing yards leader]] (1938, 1940)
* [[National Football League 1940s All-Decade Team|NFL 1940s All-Decade Team]]
* Consensus [[College Football All-America Team|All-American]] ([[1937 College Football All-America Team|1937]])
* [[Colorado Buffaloes football#Retired numbers|Colorado Buffaloes No. 24]] retired
|statlabel1   = Rushing yards
|statvalue1   = 1,321
|statlabel2   = Average
|statvalue2   = 3.4
|statlabel3   = Rushing [[touchdowns]]
|statvalue3   = 11
|nfl          = <!--whizzer-white-2-->
|CollegeHOF   = 1549
}}
}}
'''Byron Raymond''' "'''Whizzer'''" '''White''' (June 8, 1917 {{endash}} April 15, 2002) was an American lawyer and professional [[American football|football]] player who served as an [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]] from 1962 to 1993.<ref name=USSCTimeline>{{cite web |title=Members of the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=[[Supreme Court of the United States]] |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members.aspx |access-date=April 26, 2010}}</ref><ref name=chilrev93>{{cite news |url=http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1678&context=journal_articles |journal=Chicago Unbound |agency=University of Chicago Law School |last=Hutchinson |first=Dennis J. |author-link=Dennis J. Hutchinson |volume=103 |title=The Man Who Once was Whizzer White |date=1993 |page=43 }}</ref> Born and raised in [[Colorado]], he played college football, basketball, and baseball for the [[Colorado Buffaloes|University of Colorado]], finishing as the runner up for the [[Heisman Trophy]] in 1937. He was selected in the first round of the [[1938 NFL Draft]] by the [[Pittsburgh Pirates (NFL)|Pittsburgh Pirates]] and led the [[National Football League]] in rushing yards in his rookie season. White was admitted to [[Yale Law School]] in 1939 and played for the [[Detroit Lions]] in the 1940 and 1941 seasons while still attending law school. During [[World War II]], he served as an intelligence officer with the [[United States Navy]] in the [[Asiatic-Pacific Theater|Pacific Theatre]]. After the war, he graduated from Yale and clerked for Chief Justice [[Fred M. Vinson]].

White entered private practice in [[Denver, Colorado]], working primarily as a transactional attorney. He served as the Colorado state chair of [[John F. Kennedy]]'s [[1960 United States presidential election|1960]] presidential campaign and accepted appointment as the [[United States Deputy Attorney General]] in 1961. In 1962, President Kennedy successfully nominated White to the Supreme Court, making White the first Supreme Court Justice from Colorado.<ref name="usa today">{{Cite book
| title = Ex-Supreme Court Justice Byron White dies
| author=Joan Biskupic
|work=[[USA Today]]
| date = April 15, 2002
| url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/04/15/white-obit.htm
| access-date =October 20, 2008
| author-link = Joan Biskupic}}</ref> He retired in 1993 and was succeeded by [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]. White is the twelfth [[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by time in office|longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history]].

White viewed his own court decisions as based on the facts of each case rather than as representative of a specific legal philosophy. He wrote the majority opinion in cases including ''[[Coker v. Georgia]]'', ''[[Washington v. Davis]]'' and ''[[Bowers v. Hardwick]]''. He wrote dissenting opinions in notable cases such as ''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]'', ''[[Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha]]'', ''[[NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma]]'', and ''[[Roe v. Wade]]''.

==Early years==
Born in [[Fort Collins, Colorado]], White was the younger son of Maude Elizabeth (Burger) and Alpha Albert White, neither of whom attended high school.<ref name=culrvw>{{cite journal|url=http://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1271&context=lawreview |journal=Catholic University Law Review |last=Irish |first=Leon E. |title=Byron White: A Singular Life |volume=52 |date=Summer 2003 |page=883}}</ref><ref name=wwwellhutch>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hutchinson-whizzer.html |newspaper=New York Times |last=Hutchinson |first=Dennis J. |author-link=Dennis J. Hutchinson |agency=(book excerpt)|title=The Man Who Once was Whizzer White: Wellington |date=1998|access-date=May 3, 2016}}</ref><ref name=swabresny>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/us/sam-white-91-researcher-on-effects-of-a-bombs-dies.html?_r=1 |newspaper=New York Times |agency=(obituary) |last=Martin |first=Douglas |title=Sam White, 91, researcher on effects of A-Bombs, dies |date=May 2, 2004 |access-date=May 3, 2016}}</ref> He was raised in the nearby town of [[Wellington, Colorado|Wellington]], where he obtained his high school diploma in 1934.

After graduating at the top of his tiny high school class of six, White attended the [[University of Colorado Boulder|University of Colorado]] in [[Boulder, Colorado|Boulder]] on a scholarship, offered to all Colorado high school valedictorians, as his older brother Sam had done.<ref name="usa today"/><ref name=swabresny/> He joined the [[Phi Gamma Delta]] [[Fraternities and sororities in North America|fraternity]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.phigam.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=888 |title=Archived copy |access-date=July 11, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929022306/https://www.phigam.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=888 |archive-date=September 29, 2011  }}</ref> and served as student body president his senior year.<ref name="usa today"/> White graduated [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and valedictorian from the University of Colorado in 1938 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in [[economics]]. He then won a [[Rhodes Scholarship]] to attend the [[University of Oxford]] in England; after deferring it for a year to play pro football, he attended [[Hertford College, Oxford]].<ref name="supreme court">{{Cite book
| title = The United States Supreme Court
| author=Christopher L. Tomlins
| publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]
| year = 2005
| isbn=0618329692
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Fy8DjOIxDm0C
| access-date =October 21, 2008 }}</ref> During this time in England, he became acquainted with [[Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.|Joe]] and [[John F. Kennedy|Jack Kennedy]], as their father [[Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.|Joseph Kennedy]] was the [[United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom|U.S. ambassador]] to London.<ref name="usa today"/>

===College sports===
White was an [[1937 College Football All-America Team|All-American]] [[halfback (American football)|halfback]]<ref name="usa today"/> for the [[Colorado Buffaloes football|Colorado Buffaloes]], where a newspaper columnist gave him the nickname "Whizzer",<ref name="supreme conflict">{{Cite book
| title = Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court
| author=Jan Crawford Greenburg
| publisher=Penguin Group
| year = 2007
| isbn=9781594201011
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SQxqXLSy9wcC&q=alito+handsome&pg=PA290
| access-date =October 20, 2008 }}</ref> which to his chagrin followed him throughout his legal and Supreme Court careers.<ref name="usa today"/> As a senior, White led Colorado to an undefeated 8—0 regular season in [[1937 college football season|1937]], but they lost to favorite [[1937 Rice Owls football team|Rice Institute]] of [[Houston]] 28–14 in the [[1938 Cotton Bowl Classic|Cotton Bowl]] in [[Dallas]] on [[New Year's Day]].<ref name=cstmlain>{{cite news |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1938/01/02/page/31/article/rice-wins-28-14-whizzer-white-meets-mr-lain |newspaper=Chicago Sunday Tribune |agency=Associated Press |title=Rice wins 28-14; Whizzer White meets Mr. Lain |date=January 2, 1938 |page=1, part 2 }}</ref> He was the runner-up (behind [[Yale Bulldogs football|Yale]] [[quarterback]] [[Clint Frank]]) for the [[Heisman Trophy]],<ref name=mscfgn1>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SfwZAAAAIBAJ&pg=5741%2C123582 |newspaper=Milwaukee Sentinel |agency=Associated Press |title=Clint Frank voted U.S. gridder no. 1 |date=December 1, 1937 |page=21 }}</ref> and also played [[Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball|basketball]] and [[College baseball|baseball]] at CU. The basketball team advanced to the finals of the inaugural [[National Invitation Tournament]] at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] in March [[1938 National Invitation Tournament|1938]].<ref name=ctiffct>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GXAzAAAAIBAJ&pg=2899%2C4364399 |newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel |location=California |agency=United Press |title=Colorado, Temple in finals for cage title |date=March 16, 1938 |page=5 }}</ref><ref name=cdtnit38f>{{cite news |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1938/03/17/page/20/article/temple-routs-colorado-five-60-36-in-final |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |agency=Associated Press|title=Temple routs Colorado five, 60-36, in final |date=March 17, 1938 |page=20 }}</ref>

==NFL career and law school==
White originally planned to attend Oxford in 1938 and not play pro football.<ref name=sshj>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=k0osAAAAIBAJ&pg=1829%2C3258259 |newspaper=Sunday Spartanburg Herald Journal |location=South Carolina |agency=Associated Press |title=Whizzer winds up his career on gridiron |date=December 4, 1938 |page=24 }}</ref> He was selected fourth overall in the [[1938 NFL draft]], held in December 1937, by the [[National Football League|NFL]]'s [[1938 Pittsburgh Pirates (NFL) season|Pittsburgh Pirates]] (now [[Pittsburgh Steelers|Steelers]]),<ref name="usa today"/><ref>[http://www.nfl.com/draft/history/fulldraft?season=1938&round=round1#round1 National Football League: NFL Draft History]; see also [[1938 NFL draft]].</ref> and became a Rhodes Scholar days later.<ref name=bbwwrs37>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8FtPAAAAIBAJ&pg=1524%2C1865760 |newspaper=Bend Bulletin |location=Oregon |agency=United Press |title=Whizzer White Rhodes Scholar |date=December 21, 1937 |page=3}}</ref> Oxford allowed White to delay his start to early 1939, so he accepted the Pittsburgh offer in August and played the [[1938 Pittsburgh Pirates (NFL) season|1938]] season in the NFL.<ref name=sshj/><ref name=ppcmbky>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VU0bAAAAIBAJ&pg=1926%2C691999 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Press |last=Burcky |first=Claire M. |title='Whizzer' finally decides to play with Pirates |date=August 1, 1938 |page=21}}</ref><ref name=lodiup38>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7sczAAAAIBAJ&pg=5206%2C4390260 |newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel |location=California |agency=United Press |title=Whizzer White accepts pro grid offer|date=August 2, 1938|page=7}}</ref> He led the league in rushing as a 21-year-old rookie and was its highest-paid player.<ref name="usa today"/> He sailed to England in early 1939, with the intent of staying for three years.<ref name=ppgstovr>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mLhRAAAAIBAJ&pg=2665%2C3423632 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |last=Sell |first=Jack |title=Whizzer stops over here on way to Oxford |date=December 28, 1938 |page=14 }}</ref><ref name=rdeaglwwtox>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jQwkAAAAIBAJ&pg=3230%2C5832345 |newspaper=Reading Eagle |location=Pennsylvania |agency=United Press |title=Whizzer White leaves Pirates for Oxford, Eng |date=December 28, 1938 |page=14 }}</ref>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right;  margin-left:  1em; margin-right:  2em; font-size:  85%; background:#b0c4de; width:20em;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;"  |Of all the athletes I have known in my lifetime, I'd have to say Whizzer White came as close to anyone to giving 100 percent of himself when he was in competition.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tagliabue|first=Paul|year=2003|title=A Tribute to Byron White|journal=[[Yale Law Journal]]|publisher=[[Yale University]]|volume=112|issue=5|pages=999–1009|doi=10.2307/3657514|jstor=3657514|url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LJHd2V1286LRkBzwPPf8FpCdCB666T2Z0gDNh28Gr8Ys9Fc2GYph!-1659539997!-1970812899?docId=5001918990}}</ref>
|-
| style="text-align: right;" |  ~- Pittsburgh Pirates/Steelers owner<br/>'''[[Art Rooney]]'''
|}
With the outbreak of World War II in late summer, White returned to the United States.<ref name=wwjhout>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Af9VAAAAIBAJ&pg=3918%2C955319 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |agency=Associated Press |title=Whizzer White just hides out |date=October 3, 1939 |page=12}}</ref> He later enrolled at [[Yale Law School]] in 1939. In a 2000 interview, White said that he was supposed to enroll at [[Harvard Law School]], but got sick on the train ride there, so he got off the train in [[New Haven, Connecticut]] and went to Yale.<ref name=bvrrch39>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DakiAAAAIBAJ&pg=5777%2C1091018 |newspaper=Daily Times |location=Beaver and Rochester, Pennsylvania |title=Byron White now student at Yale |date=October 4, 1939 |page=8 }}</ref> White earned the highest grades in the first-year class, but he turned down an editorship of the ''[[Yale Law Journal]]'' and took a leave of absence to play football with the [[Detroit Lions]], again leading the league in rushing in [[1940 Detroit Lions season|1940]].<ref name=dswwstp>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GU8wAAAAIBAJ&pg=2116%2C4008675 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |agency=INS |title=Detroit signs "Whizzer" White |date=August 20, 1940 |page=10 }}</ref><ref name=stlastdt>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MfEjAAAAIBAJ&pg=2132%2C3776085 |newspaper=Toledo Blade |location=Ohio |last=French |first=Bob |title=Whizzer White still a student |date=August 27, 1941 |page=22 }}</ref> In three NFL seasons, he played in 33 games. He led the league in [[Rush (American football)|rushing yards]] in 1938 and 1940, and he was one of the first "big money" NFL players, making $15,000 per year ({{Inflation|US|15000|1940|fmt=eq|r=-4}}). White used the money he earned playing football to pay his law school tuition.<ref name="usa today" />

His NFL career was cut short when he entered the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] in 1942; after the war, he elected to finish [[law school]] rather than return to football. He was elected to the [[College Football Hall of Fame]] in 1954.<ref name="hutchinson">[[Dennis J. Hutchinson]], ''The Man Who Once Was Whizzer White: a Portrait of Justice Byron R. White'', (Glencoe, The Free Press, 1998)</ref>

==Military service==
During World War II, White served as an [[Military intelligence|intelligence]] officer in the [[United States Navy|Navy]], and was stationed in the [[Asiatic-Pacific Theater|Pacific Theatre]].<ref name=ptstffdes>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=h9RSAAAAIBAJ&pg=5641%2C1419005 |newspaper=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |agency=Associated Press |last=James |first=Rembert |title='Whizzer' White now on PT staff |date=September 15, 1943 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=nmgtww>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4fQZAAAAIBAJ&pg=3761%2C6234393 |newspaper=Milwaukee Journal |agency=United Press |title=Navy medal given to Whizzer White |date=June 15, 1944 |page=12, part 2}}</ref><ref name=wwsrvbh>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YRxSAAAAIBAJ&pg=6710%2C6126263 |newspaper=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |agency=INS |last=Alexander |first=John D. |title=Whizzer White survives Bunker Hill |date=June 29, 1945 |page=12}}</ref> He originally wanted to join the [[United States Marines|Marines]], but was kept out due to being [[colorblind]].<ref name="usa today"/> He wrote the intelligence report on the sinking of future President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s ''[[Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109|PT-109]]''.<ref name="hutchinson" /> For his service, White was awarded two [[Bronze Star Medal|Bronze Star]] medals,<ref name="usa today"/> and was honorably discharged as a [[Lieutenant commander (United States)|lieutenant commander]] in 1945.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Alfred |date=December 10, 1962 |title=A Modest All-America Who Sits on the Highest Bench - |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1962/12/10/a-modest-allamerica-who-sits-on-the-highest-bench |magazine=Sports Illustrated |access-date=October 18, 2020}}</ref>

==Personal life==
White first met his wife Marion (1921–2009), the daughter of the president of the University of Colorado, when she was in high school and he was a college football player.<ref name="Marion White">{{cite news|title=Marion White, wife of late justice, dies at 87|url=http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11528947|newspaper=[[The Denver Post]]|date=January 22, 2009}}</ref> During World War II, Marion served in the [[WAVES]] while her future husband was a Navy intelligence officer. They married in 1946 and had two children: a son named Charles Byron (Barney) and a daughter named [[Nancy White (field hockey)|Nancy]].<ref name="usa today"/>

His older brother Clayton Samuel "Sam" White (1912–2004) was also a high school valedictorian and Rhodes Scholar. He later became a [[physician]] and medical researcher, particularly on the effects of atomic bomb blasts.<ref name=swabresny/>

==Legal career==
[[File:White and R. Kennedy 1961.jpg|left|thumb|Byron White with Robert Kennedy in 1961]]
After his military service, White returned to [[Yale Law School]], graduating ''[[magna cum laude]]'' and first in his class in 1946.

After serving as a [[List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States#Chief Justice|law clerk]] to Chief Justice [[Fred M. Vinson|Fred Vinson]], White returned to Colorado.

White practiced in [[Denver]] for roughly fifteen years with the law firm now known as [[Davis Graham & Stubbs]]. This was a time in which the Denver economy flourished, and White rendered legal service to the business community. White was for the most part a transactional attorney; he drafted contracts and advised insolvent companies, and he argued the occasional case in court.<ref name="hutchinson" />

During the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 presidential election]], White put his football celebrity to use as chair of John F. Kennedy's campaign in Colorado. White had first met the candidate when White was a Rhodes scholar and Kennedy's father, [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.|Joseph Kennedy]], was Ambassador to the [[Court of St. James's]].<ref name="usa today"/> During the Kennedy administration, White served as [[United States Deputy Attorney General]], the number two man in the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], under [[Robert F. Kennedy]]. He took the lead in protecting the [[Freedom Ride]]rs in 1961, negotiating with Alabama Governor [[John Malcolm Patterson]].<ref name="usa today"/>

==Supreme Court==
[[File:Virginia Thomas.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Byron White swearing in new Supreme Court Justice [[Clarence Thomas]], as wife [[Virginia Lamp Thomas]] looks on in 1991]]
[[File:Message of President John F. Kennedy nominating Byron R. White to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 04-03-19 - NARA - 306363.tif|thumb|Message of President [[John F. Kennedy]] nominating Byron R. White to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court]]
Acquiring renown within the Kennedy Administration for his humble manner and sharp mind, he was appointed by Kennedy in 1962 to succeed Justice [[Charles Evans Whittaker]], who retired for disability. Kennedy said at the time: "He has excelled at everything. And I know that he will excel on the highest court in the land."<ref name="usa today"/> The 44-year-old White was approved by a voice vote.<ref name="usa today"/> He would serve until his retirement in 1993. His Supreme Court tenure was the fourth-longest of the 20th century.<ref name="usa today"/>

Upon the request of Vice President-Elect [[Al Gore]], Justice White administered the oath of office on January 20, 1993 to the 45th U.S. vice president. It was the only time White administered an oath of office to a vice president.

During his service on the high court, White wrote 994 opinions. He was fierce in questioning attorneys in court,<ref name="usa today"/> and his votes and opinions on the bench reflect an ideology that has been notoriously difficult for popular journalists and legal scholars alike to pin down. He was seen as a disappointment by some Kennedy supporters who wished he had joined the more [[Liberalism|liberal]] wing of the court in its opinions on ''Miranda v. Arizona'' and ''Roe v. Wade''.<ref name="supreme court"/>

White often took a narrow, fact-specific view of cases before the Court and generally refused to make broad pronouncements on constitutional doctrine or adhere to a specific judicial philosophy, preferring what he viewed as a practical approach to the law.<ref name="usa today"/><ref name="supreme court"/> In the tradition of the [[New Deal]], White frequently supported a broad view and expansion of governmental powers.<ref name="usa today"/><ref>(see ''[[New York v. United States (1992)|New York v. United States]]'', 488 U.S. 1041 (1992) (White, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part)).</ref> He consistently voted against creating constitutional restrictions on the police, dissenting in the landmark 1966 case ''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]''.<ref name="usa today"/> In that dissent he noted that aggressive police practices enhance the individual rights of law-abiding citizens. His jurisprudence has sometimes been praised for adhering to the doctrine of [[judicial restraint]].<ref>See {{cite journal |first=Dennis |last=Hutchinson |title=Two Cheers for Judicial Restraint: Justice White and the Role of the Supreme Court |volume=74 |journal=U. Colo. L. Rev. |page=1409 |year=2003 }}</ref>

===Substantive due process doctrine===
Frequently a critic of the doctrine of "[[substantive due process]]", which involves the judiciary reading substantive content into the term "liberty" in the Due Process Clause of the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] and [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]], White's first published opinion as a Supreme Court Justice, was a joint dissent with Justice Clark in ''[[Robinson v. California]]'' (1962), foreshadowed his career-long distaste for the doctrine. In ''Robinson'', he criticized the remainder of the Court's unprecedented expansion of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" to strike down a California law providing for civil commitment of drug addicts. He argued that the Court was "imposing its own philosophical predilections" on the state in this exercise of judicial power, although its historic "allergy to substantive due process" would never permit it to strike down a state's economic regulatory law in such a manner.

In the same vein, he dissented in the controversial 1973 case ''[[Roe v. Wade]]''. But White voted to strike down a state ban on [[contraceptive]]s in the 1965 case of ''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]'', although he did not join the majority opinion, which famously asserted a "[[right of privacy]]" on the basis of the "penumbras" of the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]]. White and Justice [[William Rehnquist]] were the only dissenters from the Court's decision in ''Roe'', though White's dissent used stronger language, suggesting that ''Roe'' was "an exercise in raw judicial power" and criticizing the decision for "interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life." White, who usually adhered firmly to the doctrine of ''[[stare decisis]]'', remained a critic of ''Roe'' throughout his term on the bench and frequently voted to uphold laws restricting abortion, including in ''[[Planned Parenthood v. Casey]]'' in 1992.<ref>(See ''Thornburg v. American Coll. of Obst. & Gyn.'' 476 U.S. 747 (1986) (White, J., dissenting))</ref>

White explained his general views on the validity of substantive due process at length in his dissent in ''[[Moore v. City of East Cleveland]]'':

<blockquote>The Judiciary, including this Court, is the most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or even the design of the Constitution. Realizing that the present construction of the Due Process Clause represents a major [[Gloss (annotation)#In law|judicial gloss]] on its terms, as well as on the anticipation of the Framers, and that much of the underpinning for the broad, substantive application of the Clause disappeared in the conflict between the Executive and the Judiciary in 1930s and 1940s, the Court should be extremely reluctant to breathe still further substantive content into the Due Process clause so as to strike down legislation adopted by a State or city to promote its welfare. Whenever the Judiciary does so, it unavoidably pre-empts for itself another part of the governance of the country without express constitutional authority.</blockquote>

White parted company with Rehnquist in strongly supporting the Supreme Court decisions striking down laws that discriminated on the basis of sex, agreeing with Justice [[William J. Brennan]] in 1973's ''[[Frontiero v. Richardson]]'' that such laws should be subject to strict scrutiny. Only three justices joined Brennan's plurality opinion in ''Frontiero''; in later cases [[gender discrimination]] cases would be subjected to intermediate scrutiny (see ''[[Craig v. Boren]]'').

White wrote the majority opinion in ''[[Bowers v. Hardwick]]'' (1986), which upheld [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]'s anti-sodomy law against a substantive due process attack.<ref name="usa today"/>

<blockquote>The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution.... There should be, therefore, great resistance to ... redefining the category of rights deemed to be fundamental. Otherwise, the Judiciary necessarily takes to itself further authority to govern the country without express constitutional authority.</blockquote>

White's opinion in ''Bowers'' typified his fact-specific, deferential style, treating the issue in that case as presenting only the question of whether homosexuals had a fundamental right to privacy, even though the statute in ''Bowers'' potentially applied to heterosexual sodomy (see ''Bowers'', 478 U.S. 186, 188, n. 1. Georgia, however, conceded during oral argument that the law would be inapplicable to married couples under the precedent set forth in ''[[Griswold v. Connecticut]]''.<ref>Oral argument of ''Bowers v. Hardwick'', available at Oyez.org, https://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1985/1985_85_140</ref>). A year after White's death, ''Bowers'' was overruled in ''[[Lawrence v. Texas]]'' (2003).

===Death penalty===
White took a middle course on the issue of the death penalty: he was one of five justices who voted in ''[[Furman v. Georgia]]'' (1972) to strike down several state capital punishment statutes, voicing concern over the arbitrary way in which the death penalty was administered. The Furman decision ended [[capital punishment in the U.S.]] until the court's ruling in ''[[Gregg v. Georgia]]'' (1976).  In that case, White voted to uphold Georgia's new capital punishment law.

White accepted the position that the [[Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] required that all punishments be "proportional" to the crime;<ref>(see ''Harmelin v. Michigan'', 501 U.S. 957 (1991) (White, J., dissenting))</ref> thus, in ''[[Coker v. Georgia]]'' (1977), he wrote the opinion that invalidated the death penalty for rape of a 16-year-old married girl. His first reported Supreme Court decision was a dissent in ''[[Robinson v. California]]'' (1962), in which he criticized the Court for extending the reach of the Eighth Amendment. In ''Robinson'' the Court for the first time expanded the constitutional prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments" from examining the nature of the punishment imposed and whether it was an uncommon punishment − as, for example, in the cases of flogging, branding, banishment, or electrocution − to deciding whether any punishment at all was appropriate for the defendant's conduct. White said: "If this case involved economic regulation, the present Court's allergy to substantive due process would surely save the statute and prevent the Court from imposing its own philosophical predilections upon state legislatures or Congress."  Consistent with his view in ''Robinson'', White thought that imposing the death penalty on minors was constitutional, and he was one of the three dissenters in ''[[Thompson v. Oklahoma]]'' (1988), a decision that declared that the death penalty as applied to offenders below 16 years of age was unconstitutional as a cruel and unusual punishment.

===Abortion===
Along with Justice [[William Rehnquist]], White dissented in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' (the dissenting decision was in the companion case, ''[[Doe v. Bolton]]''), castigating the majority for holding that the U.S. Constitution "values the convenience, whim or caprice of the putative mother more than the life or potential life of the fetus."<ref>''Doe v. Bolton'', [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=410&invol=179 410 U.S. 179] (1973). Findlaw.com.  Retrieved September 10, 2011.</ref>

===Civil rights===
White consistently supported the Court's post-''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' attempts to fully [[desegregation|desegregate]] [[Public school (government funded)|public schools]], even through the controversial line of forced busing cases.<ref>(See ''[[Milliken v. Bradley]]'' (White, J., dissenting)).</ref> He voted to uphold [[affirmative action]] remedies to racial inequality in an education setting in the famous ''[[Regents of the University of California v. Bakke]]'' case of 1978. Though White voted to uphold federal affirmative action programs in cases such as ''[[Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC]]'', 497 U.S. 547 (1990) (later overruled by ''[[Adarand Constructors v. Peña]]'', 515 U.S. 200 (1995)), he voted to strike down an affirmative action plan regarding state contracts in ''[[City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co.|Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co.]]'' (1989).

White dissented in ''[[Runyon v. McCrary]]'' (1976), which held that federal law prohibited [[private school]]s from discriminating on the basis of race. He argued that the legislative history of Title 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (popularly known as the "[[Ku Klux Klan]] Act") indicated that the Act was not designed to prohibit private racial discrimination but only state-sponsored racial discrimination (as had been held in the ''[[Civil Rights Cases]]'' of 1883). White was concerned about the potential far-reaching impact of holding private racial discrimination illegal, which if taken to its logical conclusion might ban many varied forms of voluntary self-segregation, including social and advocacy groups that limited their membership to blacks:<ref>See Runyon, 427 U.S. 160, 212 (White, J., dissenting)</ref> "Whether such conduct should be condoned or not, whites and blacks will undoubtedly choose to form a variety of associational relationships pursuant to contracts which exclude members of the other race. Social clubs, black and white, and associations designed to further the interests of blacks or whites are but two examples". ''Runyon'' was essentially overruled by 1989's ''Patterson v. McLean Credit Union'', which itself was superseded by the [[Civil Rights Act of 1991]].

===Relationships with other justices===
White said he was most comfortable on Rehnquist's court. He once said of [[Earl Warren]], "I wasn't exactly in his circle."<ref name="usa today"/> On the Burger Court, the Chief Justice often assigned important criminal procedure and individual rights opinions to White because of his frequently conservative views on these questions.

===Court operations and retirement===
[[File:Byron White with company.jpg|White with other members of the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals|right|thumb]]

White frequently urged the Supreme Court to consider [[Circuit split|cases when federal appeals courts were in conflict on issues of federal law]], believing that resolving such was a primary role of the Supreme Court. Thus, White voted to grant [[certiorari]] more often than many of his colleagues; he also wrote numerous opinions dissenting from denials of certiorari. After White (along with fellow Justice [[Harry Blackmun]], who also often voted for liberal grants of certiorari) retired, the number of cases heard each session of the Court declined steeply.<ref>See David M. O'Brien, The Rehnquist Court's Shrinking Plenary Docket, 81 Judicature 58–65 (September/October 1997).</ref>

White disliked the politics of Supreme Court appointments,<ref name="hutchinson"/> but had great faith in representative democracy, responding to complaints about politicians and mediocrity in government with exhortations to "get more involved and help fix it."<ref>David C. Frederick, Justice White and the Virtue of Modesty, 55 Stanford L.Rev. 21, 27 (2002)</ref> He retired in 1993, during [[Bill Clinton]]'s presidency, saying that "someone else should be permitted to have a like experience."<ref name="usa today"/> When he retired, White was the last veteran of the [[Warren Court]] to remain on the bench. Clinton nominated (and the Senate approved) Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]], a judge from the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit]] and a former [[Columbia University]] law professor, to succeed him.

==Later years and death==
After retiring from the Supreme Court, White occasionally sat with lower federal courts.<ref name="usa today"/>  He maintained chambers in the federal courthouse in Denver until shortly before his death.<ref name="nytobit">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/15/obituaries/byron-r-white-supreme-court-justice-for-31-years-dies-at-84.html|title=Byron R. White, Supreme Court Justice for 31 Years, Dies at 84|last=Greenhouse|first=Linda|date=April 15, 2002|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 5, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He also served for the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.library.unt.edu/gpo/csafca/Press_Releases/comfinal.htm |title=Appellate Study Commission Issues Final Report |date=December 18, 1998 |website=Library.unt.edu |access-date=June 17, 2017}}</ref>

White died of [[pneumonia]] on April 15, 2002 at the age of 84. He was the last living Justice to have served on the [[Warren Court]], and died the day before the fortieth anniversary of his swearing in as a Justice. From his death until the retirement of [[Sandra Day O'Connor]] in 2006, there were no living former Justices.<ref name="usa today"/>

His remains are interred at All Souls Walk at the [[Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, Denver|St. John's Cathedral]] in Denver.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Christensen |first=George A. |title=Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited |journal=Journal of Supreme Court History |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=17–41 |year=2008 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-5818.2008.00177.x }}</ref>

Then-Chief Justice Rehnquist said White "came as close as anyone I have known to meriting [[Matthew Arnold]]'s description of [[Sophocles]]: 'He saw life steadily and he saw it whole.' All of us who served with him will miss him."<ref name="usa today"/>

==Awards and honors==
The NFL Players Association gives the [[Byron "Whizzer" White NFL Man of the Year Award]] to one player each year for his charity work. [[Michael McCrary]], who was involved in ''[[Runyon v. McCrary]]'', grew up to be a professional football player and won the award in 2000.

The federal courthouse in Denver that houses the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit|Tenth Circuit]] is named after White.

White was posthumously awarded the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] in 2003 by President [[George W. Bush]].<ref>[https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/two_column_table/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_Recipients.htm Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients], retrieved July 30, 2009</ref>

White was inducted into the [[Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference]] Hall of Fame on July 14, 2007,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://buffzone.com/news/2007/feb/25/rmac-to-honor-whizzer/ |title=RMAC to honor 'Whizzer' |publisher=CUBuffs.com |date=February 25, 2007 |access-date=February 25, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071226043808/http://buffzone.com/news/2007/feb/25/rmac-to-honor-whizzer/ <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = December 26, 2007}}</ref> in addition to being a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the University of Colorado's Athletic Hall of Fame, where he is enshrined as "The Greatest Buff Ever".<ref>{{cite web|title=CU Athletic Hall of Fame — Justice Byron White|url=http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=921485|publisher=[[Colorado Buffaloes|University of Colorado (Boulder) Athletic Department]]}}</ref>

One of White's former law clerks, [[Dennis J. Hutchinson]], wrote an unofficial biography of him called ''The Man Who Once was Whizzer White''.<ref>[[Oxford]]: [[Oxford University Press]], 1998. {{ISBN|0-684-82794-8}}; {{ISBN|978-0-684-82794-0}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|World War II|United States}}
* [[Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[John F. Kennedy Supreme Court candidates]]
* [[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by court composition]]
* [[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by education]]
* [[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by time in office]]
* [[List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Burger Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Burger Court]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Rehnquist Court]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Warren Court|United States Supreme Court cases during the Warren Court]]
* [[List of NCAA major college football yearly rushing leaders]]
* [[List of NCAA major college football yearly scoring leaders]]
* [[List of NCAA major college football yearly total offense leaders]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=(Supreme Court Historical Society, Congressional Quarterly Books) |year=2001 |isbn=1-56802-126-7}}
* {{Cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
* {{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
* {{Cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=Garland Publishing |year=1994 |location=New York |page=590 |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration }}
* [[Bob Woodward|Woodward, Robert]] and [[Scott Armstrong (journalist)|Armstrong, Scott]]. ''[[The Brethren (non-fiction)|The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court]]'' (1979). {{ISBN|978-0-380-52183-8}}; {{ISBN|0-380-52183-0}}. {{ISBN|978-0-671-24110-0}}; {{ISBN|0-671-24110-9}}; {{ISBN|0-7432-7402-4}}; {{ISBN|978-0-7432-7402-9}}.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons|Byron White}}
{{wikisource author}}
* [https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/white-byron-raymond Byron White] at the ''[[Biographical Directory of Federal Judges]]'', a [[public domain]] publication of the [[Federal Judicial Center]].
* [https://www.oyez.org/justices/byron_r_white/ Oyez Project, U.S. Supreme Court media, Byron R. White]
* [http://www.biography.com/people/byron-r-white-36984 Biography.com] – Byron White
* {{C-SPAN|Byron White}}
* [http://www.steelersuk.com/history/thirties/Byron%20White%201.html Byron White's season with the 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates]
* [http://www.cubuffs.com/hof.aspx?hof=1 University of Colorado Athletics Hall of Fame] – Byron White
* [http://www.c-span.org/video/?301742-1/byron-white-supreme-court C-SPAN] – Life of Byron White, discussed by [[Dennis J. Hutchinson|Dennis Hutchinson]] (2011)
* {{Find a Grave|6362791}}

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{{s-aft|after=[[Nicholas Katzenbach|Nick Katzenbach]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Charles Evans Whittaker|Charles Whittaker]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]|years=1962–1993}}
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{{SCOTUS Justices}}
{{Start U.S. Supreme Court composition|CJ=[[Earl Warren|Warren]]}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition court lifespan| cj=Earl Warren|years=1953–1969}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1962}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1962–1965}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1965–1967}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1967–1969}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition CJ|CJ=[[Warren E. Burger|Burger]]}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition court lifespan| cj=Warren Earl Burger|years=1969–1986}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1969}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1970–1971}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1971}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1972–1975}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1975–1981}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1981–1986}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition CJ|CJ=[[William Rehnquist|Rehnquist]]}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition court lifespan|cj=William Hubbs Rehnquist|years=1986–2005}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1986–1987}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1988–1990}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1990–1991}}
{{U.S. Supreme Court composition 1991–1993}}
{{End U.S. Supreme Court composition}}
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