David L. Bazelon

David Lionel Bazelon (September 3, 1909 – February 19, 1993) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Education and career Bazelon was born in Superior, Wisconsin, the son of Lena (Krasnovsky) and Israel Bazelon, a general store proprietor. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. His father died in 1912 and his mother remarried to Nathan Harris.

Bazelon grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Law from Northwestern University in 1931. where he remained until he became a judge.

Federal judicial service In 1948, then-Attorney General Tom C. Clark lobbied for Bazelon — Clark's deputy — to be appointed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, but his nomination was not supported by Illinois' two US Senators, Democrats Lucas and Douglas. In Illinois, there was a widespread perception, including by Lucas and Douglas, that Bazelon was not qualified for the post. He was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1963 to 1977. His service terminated on February 19, 1993, due to his death from that condition.

Influencing the United States Supreme Court Bazelon was for decades the senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and a close associate of Justice William J. Brennan Jr., whom he had met in 1956. Justice William O. Douglas and President Lyndon B. Johnson would be their sometime companions on trips to baseball games.

The Washington Post observed in 1981 that during the Warren Court era, lawyers who wanted a Bazelon opinion upheld would do well to mention the judge's name as many times as possible in their briefs... "One mention of this name was worth 100 pages of legal research."

Bazelon became a primary source of Justice Brennan's law clerks.

Judicial career Bazelon had a broad view of the reach of the Constitution. Bazelon authored many far-reaching decisions on topics as diverse as the environment, the eighteen-year-old vote, discrimination, and the insanity defense.

Feud with Burger Bazelon was the nemesis of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger beginning from the time both served on the Court of Appeals. Bazelon was a nationally recognized advocate for the rights of the mentally ill, and his opinion in 1954's Durham v. United States (which adopted a new criminal insanity test) set off a long clash between the two judges, because Burger strongly opposed the new test.

Legacy Bazelon's former law clerks include prominent figures such as Loftus Becker, Alan Dershowitz, Martha Minow, Thomas Merrill, John Sexton, Robert Post, David O. Stewart, Eleanor Swift, Barbara Underwood, Joel Klein, and John Koskinen. The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, an organization devoted to legal advocacy on behalf of persons with mental disabilities, is named after him. Bazelon also became a very high-profile critic of the American Correctional Association, resigning from its accreditation committee. He was very disturbed by what he discovered to be an unaccountable organization that failed in its task of ensuring the professional and humane operations of prisons it evaluated.

Personal life Bazelon was married to child welfare advocate Miriam (Kellner) Bazelon for 57 years, until his death; they had two sons, James Bazelon and Richard Bazelon. Bazelon's granddaughters are journalist Emily Bazelon, University of San Francisco law professor Lara Bazelon, co-founder of Bridges to Wealth Jill Bazelon, and Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia Dana Bazelon.