Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 18, 2023
Wiley Rutledge (1894–1949) served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1943 to 1949. The ninth and final justice appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he is known for his impassioned defenses of civil liberties. He practiced law in Colorado before becoming a law school professor and dean. Rutledge supported New Deal policies and other proposals by Roosevelt, who appointed him to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1939 and to the Supreme Court in 1943. Rutledge favored broad interpretations of the First Amendment, and he argued that the Bill of Rights applied in its totality to the states. In other cases, Rutledge fervently supported broad due process rights in criminal cases, and he opposed discrimination against women and racial minorities. However, he joined the majority in two cases – Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) and Korematsu v. United States (1944) – that upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. (Full article...)