Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Lore & Background

Appointed to the U.S. In Schenck v. Later that year, in his dissent in Abrams v. United States, he argued that 'the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market' and urged vigilance against suppressing loathed opinions.

Reader's Guide

Holmes's significance lies in his enduring influence on American constitutional law and legal thought. His 'clear and present danger' test shaped First Amendment jurisprudence, while his dissent in Abrams v. United States laid groundwork for the modern 'marketplace of ideas' doctrine. As a legal realist, he rejected natural law and argued that 'the life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.' His jurisprudence supported state economic regulation and later influenced New Deal regulatory law, sociological jurisprudence, and Legal Realism. The University of Chicago Law Review ranked him the sixth-most-cited American legal scholar. His distinctive personality and writing style made him popular, especially with American progressives.

Did You Know?

• Holmes was wounded three times during the American Civil War, at the Battles of Ball's Bluff, Antietam, and Chancellorsville.
• He served as an associate justice and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court before joining the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Holmes retired from the Supreme Court at age 90, an unbeaten record for oldest justice.
• He was a legal realist who famously wrote, 'The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.'