NPR has posted the audio of a segment of Edward R. Murrow’s radio program “This I Believe,” from 1951, featuring an address by Justice William O. Douglas called The Faith of Our Fathers. If you’ve read Bruce Allen Murphy’s biography of Douglas, “Wild Bill” — priceless Posner review here — you’re probably going to wonder how much of it is fictional and made up for a possible future Presidential run. Still, it’s pretty interesting to hear Douglas’s voice.
Thanks to John Barrett for the link.
Yeah, I’d pretty much assume that anything factual Douglas claimed about himself is a lie.
What a weird guy.
Murphy’s biography is pretty one-sided itself, if a useful “myth busting” device.
Eugene Volokh has posted a snippet of a review by one of Justice Douglas’s former clerks, who criticizes Murphy’s criticisms. It’s an interesting read… and it makes me wonder exactly where the truth happens to lie.
Call me cynical, but it seems to me that no matter how low a judge sinks, his clerks will always defend him mercilessly from any critics who point that out.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_07_23-2006_07_29.shtml#1153853100
Sorry, here’s the link.