By 1974 William O. Douglas had become the longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history, having been appointed by FDR in 1939. He’d also become a globetrotting liberal rabble-rouser and a pariah to conservatives: while House Minority Leader, Gerald Ford had tried to impeach him. On December 31, 1974, Douglas touched down in the Bahamas to celebrate the New Year there, accompanied by his fourth wife, a thirty-one-year-old blonde not even born when he’d joined the Court. Within hours of landing, Douglas had a stroke and collapsed.<\/p>\n
Airlifted out of Nassau, he arrived at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington and spent the next few months convalescing. In all he missed twenty-one Supreme Court votes, and although his doctors noticed little progress – Douglas couldn’t walk and his left side remained paralyzed – he refused to resign from the Court. Finally, in March, he badgered one doctor into granting him an overnight pass to visit his wife. Instead of heading home, though, Douglas instructed his driver (he certainly couldn’t drive himself) to visit his office. He began catching up that very night and never returned to the hospital.<\/p>\n
Douglas had some good reasons not to resign. His old enemy Gerald Ford had become president, and Douglas feared that Ford would “appoint some bastard” to take his place. Plus, the court would hear important cases that term on campaign finance and the death penalty. But mostly Douglas refused to resign because in his own mind there was nothing wrong. At first he told reporters that, far from having had a stroke, he’d merely stumbled, Gerry Ford-like, and gotten a little banged up – never mind the slurred speech and the wheelchair. When questioned about this, he claimed that the stories circulating about his paralysis were rumors, and he challenged naysayers to go hiking with him. When pressed further, he swore that he’d been kicking forty-yard field goals with his paralyzed leg that very morning. Hell, he said, his doctor wanted him to try out for the Redskins.<\/p>\n
If anything, Douglas’s performance away from reporters was more pathetic still. He started sleeping through hearings, forgetting names, confusing facts on important cases, and whispering to aides about assassins; because of chronic incontinence, his secretary had to drench his wheelchair in Lysol. The other eight justices, although bound by\u00a0omert\u00e0<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>not to pressure Douglas publicly, agreed to table all 4-4 ties until the next term and not let Douglas cast deciding votes. In a small concession to reality Douglas did seek specialized stroke treatment in New York during the summer recess in 1975, but he failed to improve. The other justices finally forced Douglas to resign in November – and even then Douglas kept returning to work, calling himself the “Tenth Justice,” commandeering clerks, and attempting to cast more votes. Nothing’s wrong with me, he insisted. It was a bewildering end for an eminent jurist.<\/p>\n Culled from:\u00a0\u00a0The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3ee4e8c9-3a31-498d-8a21-6267c85eda8f.jpg\")
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\nNothing’s wrong with me!<\/em><\/p>\nArcane Excerpts: Cynical Homophobic Ex-Cop Edition<\/h3>\n