Farewell, Stevens: the Supreme Court loses its cryptographer

He helped save the VCR and limit software patents, and he had a background in cryptography. As John Paul Stevens steps down from the Supreme Court, we review his tech policy record and pay tribute to the court's strongest defender of high-tech freedom.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/the-supreme-court-loses-its-cryptographer.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[NaraVara]

What is it about the judiciary that tends to draw luddites? John Roberts, the youngest member of the court, supposedly still writes with pen and paper and has things transcribed. Not for taking notes mind you, but his actual opinions.

Now I still write with pen and paper myself, but I also read Ars Technica so I think I'm more of a throwback aficionado than a luddite. But this seems to be a consistent pattern with a lot of Constitutional Law types that I know. Something about law school, especially the very rote nature of Con Law, makes people very inside-the-box thinkers.
It should be telling that unlike the other justices, Justice Stevens started out with a Masters in English as well as the aforementioned background in cryptography. He had a broad range of interests and a certain humanism that he brought to the table rather than a slavish devotion to the law for its own sake like the Conservatives do or even the notion of the law as being a tool to redress grievances as the Liberals do.

He will be missed, that's for sure.

 

[.劉煒]

Didn't know the history. Hope we'll see more like h'm techwise.

 

[casper75]

Wow, what an exemplary individual. I can't thank him enough for the work he did!

 

[jkwinn]

The Bilski opinion was well crafted and well thought out. Justice Stevens' concurrence goes to far. The question before the Court was narrow. The majority opinion, written by Kennedy, is appropriately tailored to the case before the Court.

While Justice Stevens wrote strong opinions in the tech space, his concurrence falls short.

I agree with the author that tech issues do not fall along traditional left / right lines. However, Stevens' concurrence was joined by Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor. Any ideas why his opinion did bring forth the traditional left / right divide?

 

[average_joe]

Great article! I really enjoyed it.

 

[derstenz]

Justice Stevens was probably the most talked about Justice in both my Mass-Media Law class, and my Internet and Society Class. His ability to look at existing and emerging technologies and apply the law is unparalleled, and I, for one, believe he leaves and almost irreplaceable vacancy (short of having Lawrence Lessig become our next Supreme Court Justice). Justice Stevens wrote effective and intelligent decisions, which even at the level of the Supreme Court, is becoming a rare commodity. Thanks you for all your service Mr. Justice, and thank you Timothy and Ars for such a great article!

 

[gorehound]

That was a great read.Hope the future brings us more decent men like he was for all of us.maybe we would not have vcr's if it was not for him

 

[giggity]

He was only considered part of the "liberal wing" because the country's politics and the court's activist fascist justices, have drifted so far to the nutty, corporatist, authoritarian reich-wing side of things.

He'll be missed, especially with that corporate troll Kagan trying to solidify the total corporate takeover of the USSC.

 

[nimro]

Great read, interesting how much power the courts in the USA seem to have over the law. I'm not sure how it works here in Britannia!

Just to let you know, that should be septuagenarian not septuagenerian in the second last paragraph

 

[Naame]

The man is a hero.

 

[Scorp1us]

I was glad for those rulings, but his "contributions" to the gun ruling today was indefensible. Though, I'd rather keep him than get Kagan.

 

[MrDetermination]

Bravo Stevens.

Bravo Tim Lee for the article and Ars for publishing this.

 

[NaraVara]

The Bilski opinion was well crafted and well thought out. Justice Stevens' concurrence goes to far. The question before the Court was narrow. The majority opinion, written by Kennedy, is appropriately tailored to the case before the Court.

While Justice Stevens wrote strong opinions in the tech space, his concurrence falls short.

I agree with the author that tech issues do not fall along traditional left / right lines. However, Stevens' concurrence was joined by Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor. Any ideas why his opinion did bring forth the traditional left / right divide?

Some of them, especially where IP issues are concerned, kind of do. The Left sides with the many at the expense of the few and the right does the opposite.

 

[dnjake]

"Stevens' tech policy work may prove one of his most enduring legacies."

If that is the case, he will not have left much of a legacy behind. In any semi real world it should be clear that the legal system deserves about zero credit for anything that has happened in technology. But any thought that he might have had some impact on patents should be tempered by the large scale growth in the use of patents in the last twenty years. That includes software and biotech both in industry and in the academic world. Of course, other than to make a few successful patent parasites rich, give employment to a large number of lawyers, and provide a meal to fill the appetite of ideologs for something to protest, patents have had remarkably little real impact on the computer business either for software or hardware. Most of those on Ars seem to still live in the fantasy world where nobody actually even enforces their patents. Of course, all of that may change since Apple does show some signs of trying to actually use its intellectual property to exclude competition.

 

[Porter Doran]

Ars Technica is so bleeding cool.

 

[NotContinuum]

I think someone should email this article to Justice Stevens.

Hell, maybe we can get him to join Ars.

 

[.劉煒]

I think someone should email this article to Justice Stevens.

Hell, maybe we can get him to join Ars.

I'd pay for his sub

 

[Chris Law]

I love Ars. It's easy to know that there are so many people we'll never hear about that enact positive change that snowballs in scope towards the rest of the world, but it's great to actually learn about one of them.

 

[d3viant]

I'm glad to have learned about Justice Stevens and what he has done for technology and the internet. Keep these articles coming.

 

[sporkme]

Nice article. This is what I think many described as an "Ars Only" type of piece when you were soliciting opinions regarding content.

 

[interested_observer]

This is exactly why I read Ars. Thank you for this excellent article.

 

[jschmeling]

Interesting article, thanks. This is the kind of article I appreciate here (and the kind of article I used to read Wired for).

 

[Ars of Ares]

Echoes to the complementary comments..

 

[shread]

Nice job, good article.

 

[Zak]

Very interesting indeed. I would have never known who this man was. I hope there are and will be more like him.

Z.

 

[Ardax]

This is an excellent article.

 

[Durf]

Nice article. This is what I think many described as an "Ars Only" type of piece when you were soliciting opinions regarding content.

Seconded on all counts. More like this, please!

 

[Illidan]

Nice article. This is what I think many described as an "Ars Only" type of piece when you were soliciting opinions regarding content.

Seconded on all counts. More like this, please!

Thirded on all counts +1.

 

[allen]

Excellent article - it reminded me why I started to pay a subscription to Ars a few years ago, and why I continue to pay.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Who the heck cares? The important fact is that a liberal activist judge is gone. Hopefully the next one isn't as liberal!

As opposed to conservative activist judges? Like the ones who just struck down local laws on gun ownership rights? Boy, don't you just hate it when those activist judges do something to open up rights to everyone, rather than allow locales to legislate away people's rights?

Wait, was I talking about what I hope the court does for gay rights, or gun ownership there....

(I am pro gun rights, and pro gay rights.)

 

[d_jedi]

Stevens was on the wrong side of Grokster, though, I think..

 

[thepasswordispassword]

"First and only" applies when there is the possibility of a second.

As Ford's presidency is over, and there is no chance of him becoming president again, Stevens was "his only" Supreme Court appointment. Not "first and only", just "only". "First" implicitly implies a set, of which the mentioned is, well, first. "Only" explicitly states a single.

Now, one can call Sotomayor "Obama's first, and at present only, Supreme Court appointment", because there is a second imminent. One could call the iPad "Apple's first, and at present only, tablet device" (Netwon and prototypes notwithstanding,) because there is the possibility of a second. A company can claim to be the "first and only" to provide product/service xyz; because there is the possibility of another company providing a second such product/service later, at which point, the first company merely has to change it to "first", removing the "only."

But one should not refer to something as "first and only" when the possibility of a second is gone.

What an incredibly pointless post.

 

[arasta7]

The RIGHT to arms is just as critical as that of speech and the press.

Disagree. there are western nations that work and run just fine without such a 'critical' right enshrined for its populace.... i'll pay you on the criticality of free speech and press, but call me extremely dubious on that one. i notice in the selection of 'experts' you note one hasnt been around for ~65 years and the others are non western, highly authoritarian states. Do you have any other examples?

 

[iconmaster]

This is one of the best-written, most interesting articles I've read on Ars in roughly 10 years of reading the site. Excellent work, Timothy Lee.

 

[frankie1969]

He'll be missed, especially with that corporate troll Kagan trying to solidify the total corporate takeover of the USSC.

Corporate takeover of the US Sentencing Commission? While that may be true, I think the acronym you meant to use is SCOTUS.

...

Back to the article, I agree that Justice Stevens was a pretty smart guy when it came to tech law.

...

Regarding guns, I think that both the left & right extremes of the debate are nutjobs. Gun ownership & legality does not correlate particularly well with crime & safety, in either direction. There are peaceful western nations with extremely high & low gun rates (e.g. Switzerland vs England or Singapore) and likewise there are awful places to live at all points of the gun spectrum. skuttr, if you hate gun control, perhaps you'd like to live in Somalia or Afghanistan where you can get stingers and bazookas?

The USA is so much more socially diverse than other major nations, our cultural problems are unique and not easily resolved. IMO, our screwed up attitude of "sex=naughty, violence=good" is a big factor. But this entire line of discussion is way Way WAY off topic for the article.