The Annotated Bobblehead Justice John Paul Stevens

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John Paul Stevens, 1975-2010

John Paul Stevens was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1920 where his father was the principal owner and manager of the Stevens Hotel, the largest hotel in the world at the time. He attended the University of Chicago's Laboratory School for his K-12 education and the University of Chicago itself for his undergraduate education where he majored in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1941. After spending World War II at Pearl Harbor analyzing enemy radio traffic (he arrived after the attacks), Stevens returned to Chicago and attended Northwestern University Law School where he earned the highest grades in the law school's history. He later was a part-time faculty member at the University of Chicago and Northwestern law schools while practicing privately. He served on an anti-trust law committee for the Illinois attorney general and, in 1969, was general counsel in an investigation into the integrity of the Illinois Supreme Court. President Richard Nixon appointed him to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1970. Five years later, President Gerald Ford nominated Stevens to replace William O. Douglas on the Supreme Court. Stevens was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.