[7] In 1948, then-Attorney General Tom C. Clark lobbied for Bazelon's—Clark's deputy—appointment to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago but his nomination was not supported by Illinois' two US Senators, Democrats Lucas and Douglas.

[8] Harold L. Ickes, a key figure in the Roosevelt administration, indicated that Bazelon's activities as head of the Office of Alien Property Custodian warranted a Senate investigation but predicted none would be forthcoming.

[8] Bazelon received a recess appointment from President Harry S. Truman on October 21, 1949, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 63 Stat.

[12] Bazelon was for decades the senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and a close associate of Justice William J. Brennan Jr., whom he had met in 1956.

[13] Justice William O. Douglas and President Lyndon B. Johnson would be their sometime companions on trips to baseball games.

[17] Bazelon authored many far-reaching decisions on topics as diverse as the environment, the eighteen-year-old vote, discrimination, and the insanity defense.

1966), Bazelon, writing for the court, became the first appellate judge to say that civilly committed mental patients had a "right to treatment.

"[18] Bazelon was the nemesis of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger beginning from the time both served on the Court of Appeals.

[19] Bazelon's reach extended to Burger's tenure on the Supreme Court, owing to Bazelon's close friendship with Justice William J. Brennan Jr.[citation needed] On September 4, 1973, Chief Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit ordered a speeded-up schedule for appeals of John Sirica's order that Nixon surrender White House tapes for judicial inspection.

[20][21] Bazelon's former law clerks include prominent figures such as Loftus Becker, Alan Dershowitz, Martha Minow, Thomas Merrill, John Sexton, Robert Post, David O. Stewart, Eleanor Swift, Barbara Underwood, and John Koskinen.

He was very disturbed by what he discovered to be an unaccountable organization that failed in its task of ensuring the professional and humane operations of prisons it evaluated.