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Death of Retired Associate Justice John Paul Stevens

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The following is a guest post by Elizabeth Osborne, legal reference librarian. Elizabeth wrote last year on the occasion of the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Justice John Paul Stevens gives the keynote speech at the 2011 Wickersham Awards ceremony at the Library of Congress. Photo by Abby Brock.
Justice John Paul Stevens gives the keynote speech at the 2011 Wickersham Awards ceremony at the Library of Congress. Photo by Abby Brock.

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens died on Tuesday at the age of 99. When he retired in 2010, he had served for over 34 years and was the third-longest serving justice on the Supreme Court.

Justice Stevens was born in Chicago in 1920, the youngest of four boys. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in 1941.  During college, Stevens trained in cryptology and served as a codebreaker in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945 during World War II. He later received a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law