ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was a very important person who lived a long time ago. He was born in 1841 and died in 1935. He was a judge, which means he made decisions about what is right and wrong when people had arguments or problems they couldn't solve on their own.

Holmes was very smart and went to school for a very long time. He studied law, which is a fancy way of saying he learned all about the rules and laws that people have to follow. He became a lawyer and then a judge.

One of the reasons Holmes was so important was because he thought really hard about the law and how it should be used. He believed that the law should change and grow with the times, which means that it should be able to change when things in the world change. He called this idea the "living law."

Another important thing about Holmes was that he wanted people to be able to think for themselves. He believed that everyone should have the right to believe what they wanted and do what they wanted, as long as they weren't hurting anyone else. This is called freedom.

Holmes was also a very good writer. He wrote lots of books and articles about the law and what he thought about it. Because he was so smart and knew so much about the law, people listened to him and his ideas became very important.

Even though Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. lived a long time ago, his ideas are still very important today. People still talk about him and his "living law" idea. He was a very special person who helped make the law better and fairer for everyone.