Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932. He is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices and most influential American common law judges in history, noted for his long service, concise, and pithy opinionsparticularly for opinions on civil liberties and American constitutional democracyand deference to the decisions of elected legislatures