Byron White Byron Raymond White ( June 8 , 1917 – April 15 , 2002 ) won fame both as a football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States . Appointed to the court by President John F . Kennedy in 1962 , he retired in 1993 , being the twelfth longest - serving justice in Supreme Court history . He was married to Marion Lloyd Stearns in 1946 and the father of two children , Charles ( Barney ) Byron White and Nancy Pitkin White . White was born in Fort Collins , Colorado . He was raised in the nearby town of Wellington , Colorado , where he obtained his high school diploma in 1930 . He made a point of returning to Wellington on an annual basis for his high school reunions up until 1999 when his physical health worsened significantly . He died in Denver at the age of 84 from complications of pneumonia . He was the first and only Supreme Court Justice from the state of Colorado . Education . After graduating at the top of his Wellington high school class , White attended the University of Colorado at Boulder on a scholarship . He joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and served as student body president his senior year . Graduating in 1938 , he won a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford and , after having deferred it for a year to play football , he went on to attend Hertford College , Oxford . Football . White was an All - American football halfback for the Colorado Buffaloes of the University of Colorado at Boulder , where he acquired the nickname " Whizzer " from a newspaper columnist . The nickname would follow him throughout his later legal and Supreme Court career , to White ' s chagrin . He also played basketball and baseball . After graduation he signed with the NFL ' s Pittsburgh Pirates ( now Steelers ) , playing there during the 1938 season . He led the league in rushing in his rookie season and became the game ' s highest - paid player . After Oxford , White played for the Detroit Lions from 1940 to 1941 . In three NFL seasons , he played in 33 games . He led the league in rushing yards in 1938 and 1940 , and he was one of the first " big money " NFL players , making $ 15 , 000 a year . His career was cut short when he entered the United States Navy during World War II ; after the war , he elected to attend law school rather than return to football . He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954 . Military service . During World War II , White served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy stationed in the Pacific Theatre . He had originally wanted to join the Marines but was kept out due to being colorblind . He wrote the intelligence report on the sinking of future President John F . Kennedy ' s " PT - 109 " . White was awarded two Bronze Star medals . Personal life . White married Marion Stearns , the daughter of the president of the University of Colorado , in 1946 . They had a son named Charles and a daughter named Nancy . Legal career . After World War II , he attended Yale Law School , graduating " magna cum laude " in 1946 . During his years at Yale Law , he served as Chairman of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union , preceded by Homer Daniels Babbidge and succeeded by Johnston Redmond Livingston . After serving as a law clerk to Chief Justice Fred Vinson , White returned to Denver . White practiced in Denver for roughly fifteen years with the law firm now known as Davis Graham & Stubbs . This was a time in which the Denver business community flourished , and White rendered legal service to that flourishing community . White was for the most part a transactional attorney . He drafted contracts and advised insolvent companies , and he argued the occasional case in court . During the 1960 presidential election , White put his football celebrity to use as chair of John F . Kennedy ' s campaign in Colorado . White had first met the candidate when White was a Rhodes scholar and Kennedy ' s father , Joseph Kennedy , was Ambassador to the Court of St . James . During the Kennedy administration , White served as United States Deputy Attorney General , the number two man in the Justice Department , under Robert F . Kennedy . He took the lead in protecting the Freedom Ride rs in 1961 , negotiating with Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson . Supreme Court . Acquiring renown within the Kennedy Administration for his humble manner and sharp mind , he was appointed by Kennedy in 1962 to succeed Justice Charles Evans Whittaker , who retired for disability . Kennedy said at the time : " He has excelled at everything . And I know that he will excel on the highest court in the land . " The 44 - year - old White was approved by a voice vote . He would serve until his retirement in 1993 . His Supreme Court tenure was the fourth - longest of the 20th century . Upon the request of Vice President - Elect Al Gore , Justice White administered the oath of office on January 20 , 1993 to the 45th U . S . Vice President . It was the only time White administered an oath of office to a Vice President . During his service on the high court , White wrote 994 opinions . He was fierce in questioning attorneys in court , and his votes and opinions on the bench reflect an ideology that has been notoriously difficult for popular journalists and legal scholars alike to pin down . He was seen as a disappointment by some Kennedy supporters who wished he would have joined the more liberal wing of the court in its opinions on " Miranda v . Arizona " and " Roe v . Wade " . White often took a narrow , fact - specific view of cases before the Court and generally refused to make broad pronouncements on constitutional doctrine or adhere to a specific judicial philosophy . He preferred to take what he viewed as a practical approach to the law to one based in any legal philosophy . In the tradition of the New Deal , White frequently supported a broad view and expansion of governmental powers . He consistently voted against creating constitutional restrictions on the police , dissenting in the landmark 1966 case of " Miranda v . Arizona " . In his dissent in that case he noted that aggressive police practices enhance the individual rights of law - abiding citizens . His jurisprudence has sometimes been praised for adhering to the doctrine of judicial restraint . Substantive due process doctrine . Frequently a critic of the doctrine of " substantive due process " , which involves the judiciary reading substantive content into the term " liberty " in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment , White ' s first published opinion as a Supreme Court Justice , a sole dissent in " Robinson v . California " ( 1962 ) , foreshadowed his career - long distaste for the doctrine . In " Robinson " , he criticized the remainder of the Court ' s unprecedented expansion of the Eighth Amendment ' s prohibition of " cruel and unusual punishment " to strike down a California law providing for civil commitment of drug addicts . He argued that the Court was " imposing its own philosophical predilections " on the state in this exercise of judicial power , although its historic " allergy to substantive due process " would never permit it to strike down a state ' s economic regulatory law in such a manner . In the same vein , he dissented in the controversial 1973 case of " Roe v . Wade " . But White voted to strike down a state ban on contraceptive s in the 1965 case of " Griswold v . Connecticut " , although he did not join the majority opinion , which famously asserted a " right of privacy " on the basis of the " penumbras " of the Bill of Rights . White and Justice William Rehnquist were the only dissenters from the Court ' s decision in " Roe " , though White ' s dissent used stronger language , suggesting that " Roe " was " an exercise in raw judicial power " and criticizing the decision for " interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life . " White , who usually adhered firmly to the doctrine of " stare decisis " , remained a critic of " Roe " throughout his term on the bench . White explained his general views on the validity of substantive due process at length in his dissent in " Moore v . City of East Cleveland " : The Judiciary , including this Court , is the most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge - made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or even the design of the Constitution . Realizing that the present construction of the Due Process Clause represents a major judicial gloss on its terms , as well as on the anticipation of the Framers , and that much of the underpinning for the broad , substantive application of the Clause disappeared in the conflict between the Executive and the Judiciary in 1930s and 1940s , the Court should be extremely reluctant to breathe still further substantive content into the Due Process clause so as to strike down legislation adopted by a State or city to promote its welfare . Whenever the Judiciary does so , it unavoidably pre - empts for itself another part of the governance of the country without express constitutional authority . White parted company with Rehnquist in strongly supporting the Supreme Court decisions striking down laws that discriminated on the basis of sex , agreeing with Justice William J . Brennan in 1973 ' s " Frontiero v . Richardson " that laws discriminating on the basis of sex should be subject to strict scrutiny . However , only three justices joined Brennan ' s plurality opinion in " Frontiero " ; in later cases gender discrimination cases would be subjected to intermediate scrutiny ( see " Craig v . Boren " ) . White wrote the majority opinion in " Bowers v . Hardwick " ( 1986 ) , which upheld Georgia ' s anti - sodomy law against a substantive due process attack . The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge - made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution . . . There should be , therefore , great resistance to . . . redefining the category of rights deemed to be fundamental . Otherwise , the Judiciary necessarily takes to itself further authority to govern the country without express constitutional authority . White ' s opinion in " Bowers " typified White ' s fact - specific , deferential style of deciding cases : White ' s opinion treated the issue in that case as presenting only the question of whether homosexuals had a fundamental right to engage in sexual activity , even though the statute in " Bowers " potentially applied to heterosexual sodomy ( see " Bowers " , 478 U . S . 186 , 188 , n . 1 . Georgia , however , conceded during oral argument that the law would be inapplicable to married couples under the precedent set forth in " Griswold v . Connecticut " . ) . A year after White ' s death , " Bowers " was overruled in " Lawrence v . Texas " ( 2003 ) . Death penalty . White took a middle course on the issue of the death penalty : he was one of five justices who voted in " Furman v . Georgia " ( 1972 ) to strike down several state capital punishment statutes , voicing concern over the arbitrary nature in which the death penalty was administered . The Furman decision ended capital punishment in the U . S . until 1977 , when Gary Gilmore , who decided not to appeal his death sentence , was executed by firing squad . White , however , was not against the death penalty in all forms : he voted to uphold the death penalty statutes at issue in " Gregg v . Georgia " ( 1976 ) , even the mandatory death penalty schemes struck down by the Court . White accepted the position that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution required that all punishments be " proportional " to the crime ; thus , he wrote the opinion in " Coker v . Georgia " ( 1977 ) , which invalidated the death penalty for rape of a 16 - year - old married girl . However , his first reported Supreme Court decision was a dissent in " Robinson v . California " ( 1962 ) , in which he criticized the Court for extending the reach of the Eighth Amendment . In " Robinson " the Court for the first time expanded the constitutional prohibition of “ cruel and unusual punishments ” from examining the nature of the punishment imposed and whether it was an uncommon punishment − as , for example , in the cases of flogging , branding , banishment , or electrocution − to deciding whether any punishment at all was appropriate for the defendant ’ s conduct . White said : “ If this case involved economic regulation , the present Court ' s allergy to substantive due process would surely save the statute and prevent the Court from imposing its own philosophical predilections upon state legislatures or Congress . ” Consistent with his view in " Robinson " , White thought that imposing the death penalty on minors was constitutional , and he was one of the three dissenters in " Thompson v . Oklahoma " ( 1988 ) , a decision that declared that the death penalty as applied to offenders below 16 years of age was unconstitutional as a cruel and unusual punishment . Abortion . Along with Justice William Rehnquist , White dissented in " Roe v . Wade " ( the dissenting decision was in the companion case , " Doe v . Bolton " ) , castigating the majority for holding that the U . S . Constitution " values the convenience , whim or caprice of the putative mother more than the life or potential life of the fetus . " Civil rights . White consistently supported the Court ' s post - " Brown v . Board of Education " attempts to fully desegregate public schools , even through the controversial line of forced busing cases . He voted to uphold affirmative action remedies to racial inequality in an education setting in the famous " Regents of the University of California v . Bakke " case of 1978 . Though White voted to uphold federal affirmative action programs in cases such as " Metro Broadcasting , Inc . v . FCC " , 497 U . S . 547 ( 1990 ) ( later overruled by " Adarand Constructors v . Peña " , 515 U . S . 200 ( 1995 ) ) , White voted to strike down an affirmative action plan regarding state contracts in " Richmond v . J . A . Croson Co . " ( 1989 ) . White dissented in " Runyon v . McCrary " ( 1976 ) , which held that federal law prohibited private school s from discriminating on the basis of race . White argued that the legislative history of Title 42 U . S . C . § 1981 ( popularly known as the " Ku Klux Klan Act " ) indicated that the Act was not designed to prohibit private racial discrimination , but only state - sponsored racial discrimination ( as had been held in the " Civil Rights Cases " of 1883 ) . White was concerned about the potential far - reaching impact of holding private racial discrimination illegal , which if taken to its logical conclusion might ban many varied forms of voluntary self - segregation , including social and advocacy groups that limited their membership to blacks : " Whether such conduct should be condoned or not , whites and blacks will undoubtedly choose to form a variety of associational relationships pursuant to contracts which exclude members of the other race . Social clubs , black and white , and associations designed to further the interests of blacks or whites are but two examples " . " Runyon " was essentially overruled by 1989 ' s " Patterson v . McLean Credit Union " , which itself was superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 . Relationships with other justices . White said that he was most comfortable on Rehnquist ' s court . He once said of Earl Warren , " I wasn ' t exactly in his circle . " On the Burger Court , the Chief Justice was fond of assigning important criminal procedure and individual rights opinions to White , because of his frequently conservative views on these questions . Court operations and retirement . White frequently urged that the Supreme Court should consider cases when federal appeals courts were in conflict on issues of federal law , believing that a primary role of the Supreme Court was to resolve such conflicts . Thus , White voted to grant certiorari more often than many of his colleagues , and he wrote numerous opinions dissenting from denials of " certiorari " . After White ( along with fellow Justice Harry Blackmun , who also took a liberal line in voting to grant " certiorari " ) retired , the number of cases heard each session of the Court declined steeply . White disliked the politics of Supreme Court appointments . During his interviews for clerks , he mostly wished to discuss football , not legal philosophies ; at one point , he turned down future Justice Samuel Alito for a clerkship . He retired in 1993 , during Bill Clinton ' s presidency , saying that " someone else should be permitted to have a like experience . " Clinton appointed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , a judge from the Court of Appeals for the D . C . Circuit and a former Columbia University law professor , to succeed him . Later years and death . After retiring from the Supreme Court , White occasionally sat with lower federal courts . He maintained chambers in the federal courthouse in Denver until shortly before his death . He also served for the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals . White died on April 15 , 2002 at the age of 84 . He was the last living Warren Court Justice , and died the day before the fortieth anniversary of his swearing in as a Justice . From his death until the retirement of Sandra Day O ' Connor , there were no living former Justices . His remains are interred at All Souls Walk at the St . John ' s Cathedral in Denver . Then - Chief Justice Rehnquist said White " came as close as anyone I have known to meriting Matthew Arnold ' s description of Sophocles : ' He saw life steadily and he saw it whole . ' All of us who served with him will miss him . " Awards and honors . The NFL Players Association gives the Byron " Whizzer " White NFL Man of the Year Award to one player each year for his charity work . Michael McCrary , who was involved in " Runyon v . McCrary " , grew up to be a professional football player and won the award in 2000 . The federal courthouse in Denver that houses the Tenth Circuit is named after White . White was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003 by President George W . Bush . White was inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame on July 14 , 2007 , in addition to being a member of the College Football Hall of Fame . One of White ' s former law clerks , Dennis J . Hutchinson , wrote an unofficial biography of him called " The Man Who Once was Whizzer White " . External links .