Can Douglas Cope?

As he convalesced at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from the stroke he suffered last New Year's Eve, iron-willed and gallant Justice William O. Douglas, 76, was frequently more optimistic about his progress than his doctors. Medical experts questioned whether he would regain use of his left leg and arm, paralyzed by the stroke (TIME, Feb. 17). Doctors were also reportedly disturbed by his mental as well as physical state. Douglas objected to a psychoneurological examination and complained about plots to kill him or remove him from the bench. Last week, six days after his return to the court, he showed signs that the doctors' concern might be justified.

Calling an unusual press conference.

Douglas looked thin and frail; his left arm hung useless. The old vigor was not there: his eyes at times seemed glassy, fixed in another realm; his voice was thin, almost inaudible, and he occasionally stuttered. Asked if he had left Walter Reed without his doctors' permission, the Justice sat silent. (Douglas had obtained an overnight pass, then refused to check back into the hospital.)

Frenetic Pace. The redoubtable Justice shot down the notion that he might give up if he could not walk by summer. "Walking," he said, "has very little to do with ability to discharge the duties of the court." Resignation, he added, has "never entered my mind."

As if to reinforce that claim, Douglas is making an unusual number of requests to the court that more cases be heard. A statement that Douglas released through the Supreme Court's press office implied that the paralysis in his left arm resulted from "striking a wall when I fell ill Dec. 31." Chief Justice Warren Burger was so disturbed by that kind of inaccuracy that he ordered quotation marks to be placed on the statement lest the words seem to have the imprimatur of the court.

Douglas' condition and pace have associates worried. Federal judges are appointed for life. When their performance hinders the court's work but they put off quitting, as did Justice Stephen Field in 1897 at the age of 81, the court quietly asks a colleague to suggest resignation. In the case of Douglas, the hope is that he can recover sufficiently before he causes damage to the court.

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