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John Marshall Harlan II

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice

The Resume

    (May 20, 1899-December 29, 1971)
    Born in Chicago, Illinois
    Judge on the US Appeals Court for the Second District (1954-55)
    Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (1955-71)
    Called the ‘Great Dissenter’ of the Warren Court
    Grandson and namesake of Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan

Why he might be annoying:

    He was a founding member of the pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund (1937).
    As an Appeals Court judge, he authored a decision upholding the conviction of Communist Party leaders for advocating the overthrow of the government; as a Supreme Court Justice, he ruled such laws to be unconstitutional.
    During his early days on the Supreme Court, he voted so often with his mentor Felix Frankfurter that he was called ‘Frankfurter without mustard.’
    He admitted to being embarrassed when, as a result of his failing eyesight, his wife had to read D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterly’s Lover’ to him for an obscenity case.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was class president during his junior and senior years at Princeton.
    During World War II, he was a colonel in the US Army Air Force, and won the Croix de Guerre from both France and Belgium.
    He was close to his law clerks, often hosting reunions after they left his service.
    He usually ruled in favor of civil rights.
    He was against federal obscenity laws, writing in one case, ‘One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying