Associate Justice John Paul Stevens has today sent the attached letter to the White House, notifying President Barack Obama of his retirement from the Supreme Court, effective one day after the Court rises for the summer recess this year.  Justice Stevens has served on the Supreme Court for 34 years.  He is 89 years old.

Justice Stevens was nominated by President Gerald Ford and took his seat on December 19, 1975.

Prior to his appointment to the Court, Justice Stevens served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1970-1975.  He was Associate Counsel to the Subcommittee on the Study of Monopoly Power of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1951-1952, and a member of the Attorney General’s National Committee to Study Antitrust Law, 1953-1955.  He was Second Vice President of the Chicago Bar Association in 1970.

Justice Stevens received an A.B. from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.  He served in the United States Navy from 1942-1945, and was a law clerk to Justice Wiley Rutledge of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1947 Term.  He was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 1949.  He is married to Maryan Mulholland and has four children – John Joseph (deceased), Kathryn, Elizabeth Jane, and Susan Roberta.