WASHINGTON--Former Justice John Paul Stevens, a Republican appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court who later became an outspoken leader of the liberal wing as the court moved to the right, died on Tuesday at age 99.
Stevens, who retired from the court in 2010 at the age of 90, died at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of complications from a stroke he suffered on Monday, a statement issued by the Supreme Court said.
He was appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975 and became one of the longest-serving justices in U.S. history. Still in good health when he left the bench, he carved out a new role as a critic of some of his former colleagues on issues such as voting rights, campaign finance and the death penalty.
"He brought to our bench an inimitable blend of kindness, humility, wisdom, and independence. His unrelenting commitment to justice has left us a better nation," Chief Justice John Roberts said in the statement.
The idiosyncratic Stevens, known for wearing a bow tie with his traditional black robes and for his love of tennis, initially built a record as a maverick with a reputation as a non-partisan, highly independent jurist. His views evolved during his time on the bench, not least on the death penalty, which he initially supported. He announced in 2008 that he believed it was unconstitutional.
Stevens, once at the ideological center of the court and one of its sharpest thinkers and best writers, often wrote separate concurring or dissenting opinions that reflected his hard-to-label judicial philosophy. He was also widely known for his polite demeanor when questioning the lawyers before him, in contrast to some of his more combative colleagues.
As the court moved to the right in the early 1990s under Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Stevens became the leader of the liberal faction on the nine-justice court that included three other justices. That continued when Roberts replaced Rehnquist in 2005, with the justices often sharply divided on social issues.
Stevens embraced other liberal positions by supporting abortion and gay rights, gun restrictions, limits on government aid for religion and legalization of marijuana. He retired in 2010, allowing Democratic President Barack Obama to pick his replacement, liberal Justice Elena Kagan.
Stevens was considered a brilliant tactician and often built coalitions that won a court majority, such as in rulings that rejected the George W. Bush administration's legal positions in the war on terrorism. He wrote the court's opinions that detainees at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba could challenge their confinement in U.S. courts and that struck down as illegal the military tribunal system for terrorism suspects.
