In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Whittaker to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

[1][2] Whittaker joined the law firm of Watson, Ess, Marshall & Enggas in Kansas City, Missouri, where he previously worked full-time as an office boy, and built up a practice in corporate law with the Union Pacific Railroad, Montgomery Ward, and the City National Bank and Trust Company among his clients.

[2] Whittaker was nominated by President Eisenhower on March 16, 1956, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated by Judge John Caskie Collet.

[2] Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Whittaker was nominated by President Eisenhower on March 2, 1957, as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed Stanley Forman Reed.

Samuel Blatchford also served at all three levels of the federal judiciary, but the court system was configured slightly differently at that time.

After agonizing deeply for months over his vote in Baker v. Carr, a landmark reapportionment case, Whittaker had a nervous breakdown in the spring of 1962.

At the behest of Chief Justice Earl Warren, Whittaker recused himself from the case and retired from the Court effective March 31, 1962 due to a certified disability, citing exhaustion from the heavy workload and stress.

Effective September 30, 1965, Whittaker resigned his position as a retired Justice in order to become chief counsel to General Motors.