Ford’s only Supreme Court appointee crossword

Ford's single appointee to the Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens, sat on the nation's highest bench for more than thirty years and left a clear imprint on American law. President Gerald Ford named him in 1975; observers soon called him a moderate plus pragmatic judge who usually voted with the Court's liberal side in cases that dealt with civil rights, reproductive freedom and capital punishment. Although Stevens came from the Republican Party, he did not hesitate to break with its positions when he believed the law but also the Constitution required it. His best known opinions include his dissent in Bush v. In which he argued that the Court should not have stopped Florida's recount in the 2000 presidential race. That opinion fixed his image as an independent mind and as a protector of democratic rules. After he stepped down in 2010, Stevens kept speaking against the Court's drift to the right, above all in matters of campaign finance as well as the influence of money on politics. In his 2014 book “Six Amendments - How besides Why We Should Change the Constitution,” he set out the changes he wanted in the founding document to correct what he viewed as the Court's errors. Stevens leaves behind a record of principled independence, sharp legal thought and steady loyalty to the rule of law. A Republican president placed him on the Court or over time he became a valued liberal voice there - that history shows how vital judicial independence is and how the judicial branch continues to guide the nation's path.