Earl Warren

• Earl Warren served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969 and was at the center of what is now called the development of an "activist" court -- a court involved in law-making through striking down laws it deems unconstitutional. Warren was involved in many controversial decisions, such as Brown vs. Board of Education, in which the principle of "separate but equal" treatment for blacks and whites was overturned. The Warren court was also a major force in advancing the civil rights movements through its sympathetic judgments.
  
  

William J. Brennan

• William J. Brennan was a Supreme Court justice from 1956 to 1990, when he retired. He died in 1997. Brennan was an important part of the development of an activist court. As a justice, he sought to balance the competing claims and interests of the government and the individual citizen. During his tenure on the court, Brennan addressed issues such as segregation, Communism in the United States and freedom of speech.
  
  

Abe Fortas

• Abe Fortas was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1965 and remained on the court for only four years, leaving in 1969. Fortas was considered a liberal judge, and he was involved with the expansion of protections for individual rights surrounding privacy and criminal procedure as well as juvenile rights. Although Fortas was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to become chief justice, he was involved in scandals emerging from false testimony given to a Senate committee and accepting money for appearances. His nomination was soon withdrawn, and Fortas retired from the bench.
  
  

Hugo Black

• Hugo Black had a long run on the Supreme Court, sitting on the bench from 1937 to 1971. Black came from the South and was, in his youth, a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Later, as a justice, he became a defender of civil rights and liberties for all citizens of the United States and a major proponent of free speech. Black was a literalist -- he believed that the Constitution could be read and applied literally, rather than through interpretation.