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William Rehnquist

February 15, 2024

"Rehnquist" redirects here. For the surname, see Rehnquist (surname).

William Hubbs Rehnquist (/ˈrɛnkwɪst/ REN-kwist; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years. Rehnquist was an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and the 16th chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005. Considered a staunch conservative, Rehnquist favored a conception of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment's reservation of powers to the states. Under this view of federalism, the Court, for the first time since the 1930s, struck down an act of Congress as exceeding its power under the Commerce Clause.

William Rehnquist
Official portrait, 1986
16th Chief Justice of the United States
In office
September 26, 1986 – September 3, 2005
Nominated byRonald Reagan
Preceded byWarren E. Burger
Succeeded byJohn Roberts
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
In office
January 7, 1972 – September 26, 1986
Nominated byRichard Nixon
Preceded byJohn Marshall Harlan II
Succeeded byAntonin Scalia
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
In office
January 29, 1969 – December 1971
PresidentRichard Nixon
Preceded byFrank Wozencraft
Succeeded byRalph Erickson
Personal details
Born
William Donald Rehnquist

(1924-10-01)October 1, 1924
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedSeptember 3, 2005(2005-09-03) (aged 80)
Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Resting placeArlington National Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Nan Cornell
​
​
(m. 1953; died 1991)​
Children3
EducationStanford University (BA, MA, LLB)
Harvard University (AM)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/service U.S. Army Air Force
Years of service1943–1946
Rank Sergeant

Rehnquist grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1946. Afterward, he studied political science at Stanford University and Harvard University, then attended Stanford Law School, where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review and graduated first in his class. Rehnquist clerked for Justice Robert H. Jackson during the Supreme Court's 1952–1953 term, then entered private practice in Phoenix, Arizona. Rehnquist served as a legal adviser for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in the 1964 U.S. presidential election, and President Richard Nixon appointed him U.S. Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel in 1969. In that capacity, he played a role in forcing Justice Abe Fortas to resign for accepting $20,000 from financier Louis Wolfson before Wolfson was convicted of selling unregistered shares.[1]

In 1971, Nixon nominated Rehnquist to succeed Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him that year. During his confirmation hearings, Rehnquist was criticized for allegedly opposing the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and allegedly taking part in voter suppression efforts targeting minorities as a lawyer in the early 1960s.[2] Historians debate whether he committed perjury during the hearings by denying his suppression efforts despite at least ten witnesses to the acts,[2] but it is known that at the very least he had defended segregation by private businesses in the early 1960s on the grounds of freedom of association.[2] Rehnquist quickly established himself as the Burger Court's most conservative member. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to succeed retiring Chief Justice Warren Burger, and the Senate confirmed him.

Rehnquist served as Chief Justice for nearly 19 years, making him the fourth-longest-serving chief justice and the eighth-longest-serving justice overall. He became an intellectual and social leader of the Rehnquist Court, earning respect even from the justices who frequently opposed his opinions. Though he remained a strong member of the conservative wing of the court, Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were often regarded as more conservative. As Chief Justice, Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Rehnquist wrote the majority opinions in United States v. Lopez (1995) and United States v. Morrison (2000), holding in both cases that Congress had exceeded its power under the Commerce Clause. He opposed Roe v. Wade (1973) and continued to argue that Roe had been incorrectly decided in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). In Bush v. Gore, he voted with the court's majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

Early life and education edit

Rehnquist was born on October 1, 1924, and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood. His father, William Benjamin Rehnquist, was a sales manager at various times for printing equipment, paper, and medical supplies and devices; his mother, Margery (née Peck)—the daughter of a local hardware store owner who also served as an officer and director of a small insurance company—was a local civic activist, as well as a translator and homemaker.[3] His paternal grandparents immigrated from Sweden.[4][5]

Rehnquist graduated from Shorewood High School in 1942.[6] He attended Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, for one quarter in the fall of 1942 before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Forces, the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force. He served from 1943 to 1946, mostly in assignments in the United States. He was put into a pre-meteorology program and assigned to Denison University until February 1944, when the program was shut down. He served three months at Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma City, three months in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and then went to Hondo, Texas, for a few months. He was then chosen for another training program, which began at Chanute Field, Illinois, and ended at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The program was designed to teach maintenance and repair of weather instruments. In the summer of 1945, Rehnquist went overseas as a weather observer in North Africa.[7]

After leaving the military in 1946, Rehnquist attended Stanford University with financial assistance from the G.I. Bill.[8] He graduated in 1948 with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in political science and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He did graduate study in government at Harvard University, where he received another Master of Arts in 1950. He then returned to Stanford to attend the Stanford Law School, where he was an editor on the Stanford Law Review.[9] Rehnquist was strongly conservative from an early age and wrote that he "hated" liberal Justice Hugo Black in his diary at Stanford.[10] He graduated in 1952 ranked first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws.[8] Rehnquist was in the same class at Stanford Law as Sandra Day O'Connor, with whom he would later serve on the Supreme Court. They briefly dated during law school,[11] and Rehnquist proposed marriage to her. O'Connor declined as she was by then dating her future husband (this was not publicly known until 2018).[12] Rehnquist married Nan Cornell in 1953.

Law clerk at the Supreme Court edit

After law school, Rehnquist served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson from 1952 to 1953.[13] While clerking for Jackson, he wrote a memorandum arguing against federal court-ordered school desegregation while the Court was considering the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, which was decided in 1954. Rehnquist's 1952 memo, "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases", defended the separate-but-equal doctrine. In the memo, Rehnquist wrote:

To the argument that a majority may not deprive a minority of its constitutional right, the answer must be made that while this is sound in theory, in the long run it is the majority who will determine what the constitutional rights of the minority are [...] I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by "liberal" colleagues, but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be reaffirmed.[14]

In both his 1971 United States Senate confirmation hearing for Associate Justice and his 1986 hearing for Chief Justice, Rehnquist testified that the memorandum reflected Jackson's views rather than his own. Rehnquist said, "I believe that the memorandum was prepared by me as a statement of Justice Jackson's tentative views for his own use."[15] Jackson's longtime secretary and confidante Elsie Douglas said during Rehnquist's 1986 hearings that his allegation was "a smear of a great man, for whom I served as secretary for many years. Justice Jackson did not ask law clerks to express his views. He expressed his own and they expressed theirs. That is what happened in this instance."[16] But Justices Douglas's and Frankfurter's papers indicate that Jackson voted for Brown in 1954 only after changing his mind.[17]

At his 1986 hearing for chief justice, Rehnquist tried to further distance himself from the 1952 memo, saying, "The bald statement that Plessy was right and should be reaffirmed was not an accurate reflection of my own views at the time."[18] But he acknowledged defending Plessy in arguments with fellow law clerks.[19]

Several commentators have concluded that the memo reflected Rehnquist's own views, not Jackson's.[20][21] A biography of Jackson corroborates this, stating that Jackson instructed his clerks to express their views, not his.[22] Further corroboration is found in a 2012 Boston College Law Review article that analyzes a 1955 letter to Frankfurter that criticized Jackson.[23]

In any event, while serving on the Supreme Court, Rehnquist made no effort to reverse or undermine Brown and often relied on it as precedent.[24][25] In 1985, he said there was a "perfectly reasonable" argument against Brown and in favor of Plessy, even though he now saw Brown as correct.[22]

In a memorandum to Jackson about Terry v. Adams,[26] which involved the right of blacks to vote in Texas primaries where a non-binding white-only pre-election was being used to preselect the winner before the actual primary, Rehnquist wrote:

The Constitution does not prevent the majority from banding together, nor does it attaint success in the effort. It is about time the Court faced the fact that the white people of the south do not like the colored people. The constitution restrains them from effecting this dislike through state action, but it most assuredly did not appoint the Court as a sociological watchdog to rear up every time private discrimination raises its admittedly ugly head.[6]

In another memorandum to Jackson about the same case, Rehnquist wrote:

several of the [Yale law professor Fred] Rodell school of thought among the clerks began screaming as soon as they saw this that 'Now we can show those damn southerners, etc.' [...] I take a dim view of this pathological search for discrimination [...] and as a result I now have something of a mental block against the case.[27]

Nevertheless, Rehnquist recommended to Jackson that the Supreme Court should agree to hear Terry.

Private practice edit

After his Supreme Court clerkship, Rehnquist entered private practice in Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked from 1953 to 1969. He began his legal work in the firm of Denison Kitchel, subsequently serving as the national manager of Barry M. Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. Prominent clients included Jim Hensley, John McCain's future father-in-law.[28] During these years, Rehnquist was active in the Republican Party and served as a legal advisor under Kitchel to Goldwater's campaign.[29] He collaborated with Harry Jaffa on Goldwater's speeches.[30]

During both his 1971 hearing for associate justice and his 1986 hearing for chief justice, several people came forward to allege that Rehnquist had participated in Operation Eagle Eye, a Republican Party voter suppression operation in the early 1960s in Arizona to challenge minority voters.[31] Rehnquist denied the charges, and Vincent Maggiore, then chairman of the Phoenix-area Democratic Party, said he had never heard any negative reports about Rehnquist's Election Day activities. "All of these things", Maggiore said, "would have come through me."[32]

Justice Department edit

When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, Rehnquist returned to work in Washington. He served as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1969 to 1971.[33] In this role, he served as the chief lawyer to Attorney General John Mitchell. Nixon mistakenly called him "Renchburg" in several of the tapes of Oval Office conversations revealed during the Watergate investigations.[34]

Rehnquist played a role in the investigation of Justice Abe Fortas for accepting $20,000 from Louis Wolfson, a financier under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.[35] Although other justices had made similar arrangements, Nixon saw the Wolfson payment as a political opportunity to cement a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.[35] Nixon wanted the Justice Department to investigate Fortas but was unsure if this was legal, as there was no precedent for such an activity.[36] Rehnquist sent Attorney General John N. Mitchell a memo arguing that an investigation would not violate the separation of powers.[36] Rehnquist did not handle the direct investigation, but was told by Mitchell to "assume the most damaging set of inferences about the case were true" and "determine what action the Justice Department could take."[37] The worst inference Rehnquist could draw was that Fortas had somehow intervened in the prosecution of Wolfson, which was untrue.[37] Based on this false accusation, Rehnquist argued that the Justice Department could investigate Fortas.[37] After being investigated by Mitchell, who threatened to also investigate his wife, Fortas resigned.[38]

Because he was well-placed in the Justice Department, many suspected Rehnquist could have been the source known as Deep Throat during the Watergate scandal.[39] Once Bob Woodward revealed on May 31, 2005, that W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat, this speculation ended.

Associate Justice edit

 
Portrait of Rehnquist as an associate justice in 1972

Nomination and confirmation as associate justice edit

On October 21, 1971, President Nixon nominated Rehnquist as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed John Marshall Harlan II.[40] Henry Kissinger initially proposed Rehnquist for the position to presidential advisor H.R. Haldeman and asked, "Rehnquist is pretty far right, isn't he?" Haldeman responded, "Oh, Christ! He's way to the right of Buchanan",[41] referring to then-presidential advisor Patrick Buchanan.

Rehnquist's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee took place in early November 1971.[42][43] In addition to answering questions about school desegregation and racial discrimination in voting, Rehnquist was asked about his views on the extent of presidential power, the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement and law enforcement surveillance methods.[44] On November 23, 1971, the committee voted 12–4 to send the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation.[42][43]

On December 10, 1971, the Senate first voted 52–42 against a cloture motion that would have allowed the Senate to end debate on Rehnquist's nomination and vote on whether to confirm him.[42][45] The Senate then voted 22–70 to reject a motion to postpone consideration of his confirmation until July 18, 1972.[42] Later that day, the Senate voted 68–26 to confirm Rehnquist,[42][46] and he took the judicial oath of office on January 7, 1972.[47]

There were two Supreme Court vacancies in the fall of 1971. The other was filled by Lewis F. Powell Jr., who took office on the same day as Rehnquist to replace Hugo Black.[46][47]

Tenure as associate justice edit

On the Court, Rehnquist promptly established himself as Nixon's most conservative appointee, taking a narrow view of the Fourteenth Amendment and a broad view of state power in domestic policy. He almost always voted "with the prosecution in criminal cases, with business in antitrust cases, with employers in labor cases, and with the government in speech cases."[48] Rehnquist was often a lone dissenter in cases early on, but his views later often became the Court's majority view.[8]

Federalism edit

For years, Rehnquist was determined to keep cases involving individual rights in state courts out of federal reach.[48][49] In National League of Cities v. Usery (1977), his majority opinion invalidated a federal law extending minimum wage and maximum hours provisions to state and local government employees.[50] Rehnquist wrote, "this exercise of congressional authority does not comport with the federal system of government embodied in the Constitution."[50]

Equal protection, civil rights, and abortion edit

Rehnquist rejected a broad view of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1952, while clerking for Jackson, Rehnquist wrote a memorandum concluding that "Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be re-affirmed. If the Fourteenth Amendment did not enact Spencer's Social Statics, it just as surely did not enact Myrddahl's American Dilemma" (An American Dilemma), by which he meant that the Court should not "read its own sociological views into the Constitution."[51] Rehnquist believed the Fourteenth Amendment was meant only as a solution to the problems of slavery, and was not to be applied to abortion rights or prisoner's rights.[48][52] He believed the Court "had no business reflecting society's changing and expanding values" and that this was Congress's domain.[48] Rehnquist tried to weave his view of the Amendment into his opinion for Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, but the other justices rejected it.[52] He later extended what he said he saw as the Amendment's scope, writing in Trimble v. Gordon, "except in the area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply—classifications based on race or on national origin".[53] During the Burger Court's deliberations over Roe v. Wade, Rehnquist promoted his view that courts' jurisdiction does not apply to abortion.[54]

Rehnquist voted against the expansion of school desegregation plans and the establishment of legalized abortions, dissenting in Roe v. Wade. He expressed his views about the Equal Protection Clause in cases like Trimble v. Gordon:[53]

Unfortunately, more than a century of decisions under this Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment have produced ... a syndrome wherein this Court seems to regard the Equal Protection Clause as a cat-o'-nine-tails to be kept in the judicial closet as a threat to legislatures which may, in the view of the judiciary, get out of hand and pass "arbitrary", "illogical", or "unreasonable" laws. Except in the area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply—classifications based on race or on national origin, the first cousin of race—the Court's decisions can fairly be described as an endless tinkering with legislative judgments, a series of conclusions unsupported by any central guiding principle.

Other issues edit

Rehnquist consistently defended state-sanctioned prayer in public schools.[22] He held a restrictive view of criminals' and prisoners' rights and believed capital punishment to be constitutional.[55] He supported the view that the Fourth Amendment permitted a warrantless search incident to a valid arrest.[56]

In Nixon v. Administrator of General Services (1977), Rehnquist dissented from a decision upholding the constitutionality of an act that gave a federal agency administrator certain authority over former President Nixon's presidential papers and tape recordings.[57] He dissented solely on the ground that the law was "a clear violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers".[50][57]

During oral argument in Duren v. Missouri (1978), the Court faced a challenge to laws and practices that made jury duty voluntary for women in that state. At the end of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's oral presentation, Rehnquist asked her, "You will not settle for putting Susan B. Anthony on the new dollar, then?"[58]

Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion in Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981), which began a gradual trend toward overturning the ban on software patents in the United States first established in Parker v. Flook, 437 U.S. 584 (1978). In Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., pertaining to video cassette recorders such as the Betamax system, John Paul Stevens wrote an opinion providing a broad fair use doctrine while Rehnquist joined the dissent supporting stronger copyrights. In Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003), Rehnquist was in the majority favoring the copyright holders, with Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissenting in favor of a narrower construction of copyright law.

View of the rational basis test edit

Harvard University law professor David Shapiro wrote that as an associate justice, Rehnquist disliked even minimal inquiries into legislative objectives except in the areas of race, national origin, and infringement of specific constitutional guarantees.[59] For Rehnquist, the rational basis test was not a standard for weighing the interests of the government against the individual but a label to describe a preordained result.[59] In 1978, Shapiro pointed out that Rehnquist had avoided joining rational basis determinations for years, except in one case, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld.[59] In Trimble v. Gordon, Rehnquist eschewed the majority's approach to equal protection, writing in dissent that the state's distinction should be sustained because it was not "mindless and patently irrational".[59] (The Court struck down an Illinois law allowing illegitimate children to inherit by intestate succession only from their mothers.) Shapiro wrote that Rehnquist seemed content to find a sufficient relationship between a challenged classification and perceived governmental interests "no matter how tenuous or speculative that relationship might be".[59][60]

A practical result of Rehnquist's view of rational basis can be seen in Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, wherein the Court's majority struck down a school board rule that required every pregnant teacher to take unpaid maternity leave beginning five months before the expected birth of her child.[60] Lewis Powell had written an opinion resting on the ground that the school board rule was too inclusive to survive equal protection analysis.[60] In dissent, Rehnquist attacked Powell's opinion, saying:

If legislative bodies are to be permitted to draw a line anywhere short of the delivery room, I can find no judicial standard of measurement which says the ones drawn here were invalid.[60]

Shapiro writes that Rehnquist's opinion implied:

That there is no constitutionally significant difference between a classification that encompasses virtually no one outside the scope of its purpose and a classification so overinclusive that the vast majority of those falling within are beyond its intended scope.[60]

Rehnquist's dissent in United States Department of Agriculture v. Murry illuminates his view that a classification should pass muster under the rational basis test so long as that classification is not entirely counterproductive with respect to the purposes of the legislation in which it is contained.[61] Shapiro alleges that Rehnquist's stance "makes rational basis a virtual nullity".[60]

Relations on the Court edit

Rehnquist quickly became well-liked and developed friendly personal relations with his colleagues, even with ideological opposites. William J. Brennan Jr. "startled one acquaintance by informing him that 'Bill Rehnquist is my best friend up here.'"[62] Rehnquist and William O. Douglas bonded over a shared iconoclasm and love of the West.[63] The Brethren claims that the Court's "liberals found it hard not to like the good-natured, thoughtful Rehnquist", despite finding his legal philosophy "extreme",[64] and that Potter Stewart regarded Rehnquist as "excellent" and "a "team player, a part of the group in the center of the court, even though he usually ended up in the conservative bloc".[65]

Since Rehnquist's first years on the Supreme Court, other justices criticized what they saw as his "willingness to cut corners to reach a conservative result", "gloss[ing] over inconsistencies of logic or fact" or distinguishing indistinct cases to reach their destination.[66][67] In Jefferson v. Hackney, for example, Douglas and Thurgood Marshall charged that Rehnquist's opinion "misrepresented the legislative history"[68] of a federal welfare program.[69] Rehnquist did not correct what The Brethren characterizes as an "outright misstatement, ... [and thus] publish[ed] an opinion that twisted the facts".[68] His "misuse" of precedents in another case "shocked" Stevens.[70] For his part, Rehnquist was often "contemptuous of Brennan's opinions", seeing them as "bending the facts or law to suit his purposes".[71] Rehnquist had a tense relationship with Marshall, who sometimes accused him of bigotry.[72]

Rehnquist usually voted with Chief Justice Warren Burger,[73] and, recognizing "the importance of his relationship with Burger", often went along to get along, joining Burger's majority opinions even when he disagreed with them, and, in important cases, "tr[ying] to straighten him out".[71] Even so, being reluctant to compromise, Rehnquist was the most frequent sole dissenter during the Burger Court, garnering the nickname "the Lone Ranger".[22]

Chief Justice edit

Further information: Rehnquist Court
 
William Rehnquist (left) takes the oath as Chief Justice from retiring Warren Burger at the White House in 1986, as his wife, Natalie, holds a Bible, President Ronald Reagan and Justice Antonin Scalia look on

Nomination and confirmation as chief justice edit

When Burger retired in 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist for chief justice. Although Rehnquist was far more conservative than Burger,[74] "his colleagues were unanimously pleased and supportive", even his "ideological opposites".[62] The nomination "was met with 'genuine enthusiasm on the part of not only his colleagues on the Court but others who served the Court in a staff capacity and some of the relatively lowly paid individuals at the Court. There was almost a unanimous feeling of joy.'"[62] Thurgood Marshall later called him "a great chief justice".[25]

The nomination was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 20, 1986. This was the first confirmation hearing on a chief justice nominee to be opened to gavel-to-gavel television coverage.[75] During the hearing, Senator Ted Kennedy challenged Rehnquist on his unwitting ownership of property that had a restrictive covenant against sale to Jews[76] (such covenants were held to be unenforceable under the 1948 Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer). Along with senators Joe Biden and Howard Metzenbaum, Kennedy called Rehnquist "insensitive to minorities and women's rights while on the court."[77] Rehnquist also drew criticism for his membership in the Washington, D.C. Alfalfa Club, which at the time did not allow women to join.[78] On August 14, the Judiciary Committee voted 13–5 to report the nomination to the Senate with a favorable recommendation.[42]

Despite various Democrats' efforts to defeat the nomination, the Senate confirmed Rehnquist on September 17. After cloture was invoked in a 68–31 vote,[42] Rehnquist was confirmed in a 65–33 vote (49 Republicans and 16 Democrats voted in favor; 31 Democrats and two Republicans voted against).[77] He took office on September 26, becoming the first person since Harlan F. Stone to serve as both an associate justice and chief justice. Rehnquist's associate justice successor, Antonin Scalia, was sworn into office that same day.[75]

Rehnquist had no prior experience as a judge upon his appointment to the Court. His only experience in presiding over a case at the trial level was in 1984, when Judge D. Dortch Warriner invited him to preside over a civil case, Julian D. Heislup, Sr. and Linda L. Dixon, Appellees, v. Town of Colonial Beach, Virginia, et al. Exercising the authority of a Supreme Court justice to preside over lower court proceedings, he oversaw the jury trial involving allegations that police department employees' civil rights were violated when they testified in a matter involving alleged police brutality against a teenage boy.[79] Rehnquist ruled for the plaintiffs in a number of motions, allowing the case to go to the jury. When the jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded damages, the defendants appealed. The appeal was argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 4, 1986–16 days before Rehnquist was nominated as chief justice. Forty-three days after Rehnquist was sworn in as chief justice, the Fourth Circuit reversed the judgment, overruling Rehnquist, and concluding that there was insufficient evidence to have sent the matter to the jury.[80]

Tenure as chief justice edit

Presidential oaths administered edit

In his capacity as chief justice, Rehnquist administered the Oath of Office to the following presidents of the United States:

Leadership of the Court edit

Rehnquist tightened up the justices' conferences, keeping justices from going too long or off track and not allowing any justice to speak twice until each had spoken once, and gained a reputation for scrupulous fairness in assigning opinions: Rehnquist assigned no justice (including himself) two opinions before everyone had been assigned one, and made no attempts to interfere with assignments for cases in which he was in the minority. Most significantly, he successfully lobbied Congress in 1988 to give the Court control of its own docket, cutting back on mandatory appeals and certiorari grants in general.[81]

Rehnquist added four yellow stripes to the sleeves of his robe in 1995. A lifelong fan of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, he liked the Lord Chancellor's costume in a community theater production of Iolanthe, and thereafter appeared in court with the same striped sleeves.[82] His successor, Chief Justice John Roberts, chose not to continue the practice.[83]

Federalism doctrine edit

Scholars expected Rehnquist to push the Supreme Court in a more conservative direction during his tenure. Many commentators expected to see the federal government's power limited and state governments' power increased.[84] However, legal reporter Jan Crawford has said that some of Rehnquist's victories toward the federalist goal of scaling back congressional power over the states had little practical impact.[85]

Rehnquist voted with the majority in City of Boerne v. Flores (1997), and referred to that decision as precedent for requiring Congress to defer to the Court when interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment (including the Equal Protection Clause) in a number of cases. Boerne held that any statute that Congress enacted to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment (including the Equal Protection Clause) had to show "a congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end". The Rehnquist Court's congruence and proportionality theory replaced the "ratchet" theory that had arguably been advanced in Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966).[86] According to the ratchet theory, Congress could "ratchet up" civil rights beyond what the Court had recognized, but Congress could not "ratchet down" judicially recognized rights. According to the majority opinion of Justice Anthony Kennedy, which Rehnquist joined in Boerne:

There is language in our opinion in Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641 (1966), which could be interpreted as acknowledging a power in Congress to enact legislation that expands the rights contained in §1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This is not a necessary interpretation, however, or even the best one.... If Congress could define its own powers by altering the Fourteenth Amendment's meaning, no longer would the Constitution be "superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means".

The Rehnquist Court's congruence and proportionality standard made it easier to revive older precedents preventing Congress from going too far[87] in enforcing equal protection of the laws.[88]

One of the Rehnquist Court's major developments involved reinforcing and extending the doctrine of sovereign immunity,[89] which limits the ability of Congress to subject non-consenting states to lawsuits by individual citizens seeking money damages.

In both Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents (2000) and Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett (2001), the Court held that Congress had exceeded its power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause. In both cases, Rehnquist was in the majority that held discrimination by states based upon age or disability (as opposed to race or gender) need satisfy only rational basis review as opposed to strict scrutiny.

 
Rehnquist at the National Archives Rotunda in 2003

Though the Eleventh Amendment by its terms applies only to suits against a state by citizens of another state, the Rehnquist Court often extended this principle to suits by citizens against their own states. One such case was Alden v. Maine (1999), in which the Court held that the authority to subject states to private suits does not follow from any of the express enumerated powers in Article I of the Constitution, and therefore looked to the Necessary and Proper Clause to see whether it authorized Congress to subject the states to lawsuits by the state's own citizens. Rehnquist agreed with Kennedy's statement that such lawsuits were not "necessary and proper":

Nor can we conclude that the specific Article I powers delegated to Congress necessarily include, by virtue of the Necessary and Proper Clause or otherwise, the incidental authority to subject the States to private suits as a means of achieving objectives otherwise within the scope of the enumerated powers.

Rehnquist also led the Court toward a more limited view of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause. For example, he wrote for a 5-to-4 majority in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995), striking down a federal law as exceeding congressional power under the Clause.

Lopez was followed by United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000), in which Rehnquist wrote the Court's opinion striking down the civil damages portion of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 as regulating conduct that has no significant direct effect on interstate commerce. Rehnquist's majority opinion in Morrison also rejected an Equal Protection argument on the Act's behalf. All four dissenters disagreed with the Court's interpretation of the Commerce Clause, and two dissenters, Stevens and Breyer, also took issue with the Court's Equal Protection analysis. David Souter asserted that the Court was improperly seeking to convert the judiciary into a "shield against the commerce power".

Rehnquist's majority opinion in Morrison cited precedents limiting the Equal Protection Clause's scope, such as United States v. Cruikshank (1876), which held that the Fourteenth Amendment applied only to state actions, not private acts of violence. Breyer, joined by Stevens, agreed with the majority that it "is certainly so" that Congress may not "use the Fourteenth Amendment as a source of power to remedy the conduct of private persons", but took issue with another aspect of the Morrison Court's Equal Protection analysis, arguing that cases that the majority had cited (including United States v. Harris and the Civil Rights Cases, regarding lynching and segregation, respectively) did not consider "this kind of claim" in which state actors "failed to provide adequate (or any) state remedies". In response, the Morrison majority asserted that the Violence Against Women Act was "directed not at any State or state actor, but at individuals who have committed criminal acts motivated by gender bias".

The federalist trend Lopez and Morrison set was seemingly halted by Gonzales v. Raich (2005), in which the Court broadly interpreted the Commerce Clause to allow Congress to prohibit the intrastate cultivation of medicinal cannabis. Rehnquist, O'Connor and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented in Raich.

Rehnquist authored the majority opinion in South Dakota v. Dole (1987), upholding Congress's reduction of funds to states not complying with the national 21-year-old drinking age. Rehnquist's broad reading of Congress's spending power was also seen as a major limitation on the Rehnquist Court's push to redistribute power from the federal government to the states.

According to law professor Erwin Chemerinsky,[90] Rehnquist presided over a "federalist revolution" as chief justice, but Cato Institute scholar Roger Pilon has said that "[t]he Rehnquist court has revived the doctrine of federalism, albeit only at the edges and in very easy cases."[91]

Stare decisis edit

Some commentators expected the Rehnquist Court to overrule several controversial decisions broadly interpreting the Bill of Rights.[22] But the Rehnquist Court expressly declined to overrule Miranda v. Arizona in Dickerson v. United States. Rehnquist believed that federal judges should not impose their personal views on the law or stray beyond the framers' intent by reading broad meaning into the Constitution; he saw himself as an "apostle of judicial restraint".[22] Columbia Law School Professor Vincent Blasi said of Rehnquist in 1986 that "[n]obody since the 1930s has been so niggardly in interpreting the Bill of Rights, so blatant in simply ignoring years and years of precedent."[22] In the same article, Rehnquist was quoted as retorting that "such attacks come from liberal academics and that 'on occasion, they write somewhat disingenuously about me'."

Rehnquist disagreed with Roe v. Wade. In 1992, Roe survived by a 5–4 vote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which relied heavily on the doctrine of stare decisis. Dissenting in Casey, Rehnquist criticized the Court's "newly minted variation on stare decisis", and asserted "that Roe was wrongly decided, and that it can and should be overruled consistently with our traditional approach to stare decisis in constitutional cases".[92]

The Court decided another abortion case, this time dealing with partial birth abortion, in Stenberg v. Carhart (2000). Again, the vote was 5–4, and again Rehnquist dissented, urging that stare decisis not be the sole consideration: "I did not join the joint opinion in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833 (1992), and continue to believe that case is wrongly decided."

LGBT rights edit

In a 1977 dissent in the case of Ratchford v. Gay Lib, Rehnquist gave weight to the pseudoscientific notion that homosexuality is contagious.[93][94]

Rehnquist joined the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick upholding the outlawing of gay sex acts as constitutional, and did not join Chief Justice Burger's concurrence.[95]

In Romer v. Evans (1996), Colorado adopted an amendment to the state constitution that would have prevented any municipality within the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect citizens from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. Rehnquist joined Scalia's dissent, which argued that since the Constitution says nothing about this subject, "it is left to be resolved by normal democratic means". The dissent argued as follows (some punctuation omitted):

General laws and policies that prohibit arbitrary discrimination would continue to prohibit discrimination on the basis of homosexual conduct as well. This ... lays to rest such horribles, raised in the course of oral argument, as the prospect that assaults upon homosexuals could not be prosecuted. The amendment prohibits special treatment of homosexuals, and nothing more. It would not affect, for example, a requirement of state law that pensions be paid to all retiring state employees with a certain length of service; homosexual employees, as well as others, would be entitled to that benefit.

The dissent mentioned the Court's then-existing precedent in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), that "the Constitution does not prohibit what virtually all States had done from the founding of the Republic until very recent years—making homosexual conduct a crime." By analogy, the Romer dissent reasoned that:

If it is rational to criminalize the conduct, surely it is rational to deny special favor and protection to those with a self avowed tendency or desire to engage in the conduct.

The dissent listed murder, polygamy, and cruelty to animals as behaviors that the Constitution allows states to be very hostile toward, and said, "the degree of hostility reflected by Amendment 2 is the smallest conceivable." It added:

I would not myself indulge in ... official praise for heterosexual monogamy, because I think it no business of the courts (as opposed to the political branches) to take sides in this culture war. But the Court today has done so, not only by inventing a novel and extravagant constitutional doctrine to take the victory away from traditional forces, but even by verbally disparaging as bigotry adherence to traditional attitudes.

In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court overruled Bowers. Rehnquist again dissented, along with Scalia and Thomas. The Court's result in Romer had described the struck-down statute as "a status-based enactment divorced from any factual context from which we could discern a relationship to legitimate state interests".[96] The sentiment behind that statute had led the Court to evaluate it with a "more searching" form of review.[97] Similarly, in Lawrence, "moral disapproval" was found to be an unconstitutional basis for condemning a group of people.[97] The Court protected homosexual behavior in the name of liberty and autonomy.[97]

Rehnquist sometimes reached results favorable to homosexuals−for example, voting to allow a gay CIA employee to sue on the basis of constitutional law for improper personnel practices (although barring suit on the basis of administrative law in deference to a claim of national security reasons),[98] to allow same-sex sexual harassment claims to be adjudicated,[99] and to allow the University of Wisconsin–Madison to require students to pay a mandatory fee that subsidized gay groups along with other student organizations.[100]

Because of his votes in gay rights cases, ACT UP included Rehnquist alongside Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Jerry Falwell, and Jesse Helms in a series of posters denouncing what it regarded as leading figures in the anti-gay movement in America.[101]

Civil Rights Act edit

In Alexander v. Sandoval (2001), which involved the issue of whether a citizen could sue a state for not providing driver's license exams in languages other than English, Rehnquist voted with the majority in denying a private right to sue for discrimination based on race or national origin involving disparate impact under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sandoval cited Cannon v. University of Chicago (1979) as precedent. The Court ruled 5–4 that various facts (regarding disparate impact) mentioned in a footnote of Cannon were not part of the holding of Cannon. The majority also viewed it as significant that §602 of Title VI did not repeat the rights-creating language (race, color, or national origin) in §601.

Religion clauses edit

In 1992, Rehnquist joined a dissenting opinion in Lee v. Weisman arguing that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment only forbids government from preferring one particular religion over another.[102] Souter wrote a separate concurrence specifically addressed to Rehnquist on this issue.[102]

Rehnquist also led the way in allowing greater state assistance to religious schools, writing another 5-to-4 majority opinion in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris that approved a school voucher program that aided church schools along with other private schools.

In Van Orden v. Perry (2005), Rehnquist wrote the plurality opinion upholding the constitutionality of a display of the Ten Commandments at the Texas state capitol in Austin. He wrote:

Our cases, Janus like, point in two directions in applying the Establishment Clause. One face looks toward the strong role played by religion and religious traditions throughout our Nation's history.... The other face looks toward the principle that governmental intervention in religious matters can itself endanger religious freedom.

This opinion was joined by Scalia, Thomas, Breyer, and Kennedy.

First Amendment edit

University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone has written that Rehnquist was by an impressive margin the justice least likely to invalidate a law as violating "the freedom of speech, or of the press".[103] Burger was 1.8 times more likely to vote in favor of the First Amendment; Scalia, 1.6 times; Thomas, 1.5 times.[103] Excluding unanimous Court decisions, Rehnquist voted to reject First Amendment claims 92% of the time.[103] In issues involving freedom of the press, he rejected First Amendment claims 100% of the time.[103] Stone wrote:

There were only three areas in which Rehnquist showed any interest in enforcing the constitutional guarantee of free expression: in cases involving advertising, religious expression, and campaign finance regulation.[103]

But, as he did in Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia, Rehnquist voted against freedom of advertising if an advertisement involved birth control or abortion.

Fourteenth Amendment edit

Rehnquist wrote a concurrence agreeing to strike down the male-only admissions policy of the Virginia Military Institute as violating the Equal Protection Clause,[104][105] but declined to join the majority opinion's basis for using the Fourteenth Amendment, writing:

Had Virginia made a genuine effort to devote comparable public resources to a facility for women, and followed through on such a plan, it might well have avoided an equal protection violation.[105]

This rationale supported facilities separated on the basis of gender:

It is not the 'exclusion of women' that violates the Equal Protection Clause, but the maintenance of an all-men school without providing any—much less a comparable—institution for women.... It would be a sufficient remedy, I think, if the two institutions offered the same quality of education and were of the same overall caliber.[105]

Rehnquist remained skeptical about the Court's Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence; some of his opinions most favorable to equality resulted from statutory rather than constitutional interpretation. For example, in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986), Rehnquist established a hostile-environment sexual harassment cause of action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including protection against psychological aspects of harassment in the workplace.

Bush v. Gore edit

In 2000, Rehnquist wrote a concurring opinion in Bush v. Gore, the case that ended the presidential election controversy in Florida, agreeing with four other justices that the Equal Protection Clause barred the "standardless" manual recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court.

Presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial edit

See also: Impeachment trial of Bill Clinton
 
Rehnquist serving as presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial

In 1999, Rehnquist became the second chief justice (after Salmon P. Chase) to preside over a presidential impeachment trial, during the proceedings against President Bill Clinton. He was a generally passive presiding officer, once commenting on his stint as presiding officer, "I did nothing in particular, and I did it very well."[106] In 1992, Rehnquist wrote Grand Inquests, a book analyzing both the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the impeachment of Samuel Chase.[107]

Legacy edit

Jeffery Rosen has argued that Rehnquist's "tactical flexibility was more effective than the rigid purity of Scalia and Thomas."[108] Rosen writes:

In truth, Rehnquist carefully staked out a limbo between the right and the left and showed that it was a very good place to be. With exceptional efficiency and amiability he led a Court that put the brakes on some of the excesses of the Earl Warren era while keeping pace with the sentiments of a majority of the country—generally siding with economic conservatives and against cultural conservatives. As for judicial temperament, he was far more devoted to preserving tradition and majority rule than the generation of fire-breathing conservatives who followed him. And his administration of the Court was brilliantly if quietly effective, making him one of the most impressive chief justices of the past hundred years.

In The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist, biographer John A. Jenkins was critical of Rehnquist's history with racial discrimination. He noted that, as a private citizen, Rehnquist had protested Brown v. Board of Education, and as a justice, consistently ruled against racial minorities in affirmative action cases. Only when white males began to make reverse discrimination claims did he become sympathetic to equal protection arguments.[109]

Charles Fried has described the Rehnquist Court's "project" as "to reverse not the course of history but the course of constitutional doctrine's abdication to politics".[110] Legal reporter Jan Greenburg has said that conservative critics noted that the Rehnquist Court did little to overturn the left's successes in the lower courts, and in some cases actively furthered them.[111] But in 2005, law professor John Yoo wrote, "It is telling to see how many of Rehnquist's views, considered outside the mainstream at the time by professors and commentators, the court has now adopted."[112]

Personal health edit

After Rehnquist's death in 2005, the FBI honored a Freedom of Information Act request detailing the Bureau's background investigation before Rehnquist's nomination as chief justice. The files reveal that for a period, Rehnquist had been addicted to Placidyl, a drug widely prescribed for insomnia. It was not until he was hospitalized that doctors learned of the extent of his dependency.

Freeman Cary, a U.S. Capitol physician, prescribed Rehnquist Placidyl for insomnia and back pain from 1972 to 1981 in doses exceeding the recommended limits, but the FBI report concluded that Rehnquist was already taking the drug as early as 1970.[113] By the time he sought treatment, Rehnquist was taking three times the prescribed dose of the drug nightly.[114] On December 27, 1981, Rehnquist entered George Washington University Hospital for treatment of back pain and Placidyl dependency. There, he underwent a monthlong detoxification process.[114] While hospitalized, he had typical withdrawal symptoms, including hallucinations and paranoia. For example, "One doctor said Rehnquist thought he heard voices outside his hospital room plotting against him and had 'bizarre ideas and outrageous thoughts', including imagining 'a CIA plot against him' and seeming to see the design patterns on the hospital curtains change configuration."[115]

For several weeks before his hospitalization, Rehnquist had slurred his words, but there were no indications he was otherwise impaired.[113][116] Law professor Michael Dorf observed that "none of the Justices, law clerks or others who served with Rehnquist have so much as hinted that his Placidyl addiction affected his work, beyond its impact on his speech."[117]

Failing health and death edit

 
An ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist administers the presidential oath of office to President George W. Bush at his inauguration in 2005, as First Lady Laura Bush looks on. Note: Rehnquist's addition of the gold stripes on his robes
 
Rehnquist's grave, which is next to his wife, Nan, at Arlington National Cemetery

On October 26, 2004, the Supreme Court press office announced that Rehnquist had recently been diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer.[118] In the summer of 2004, Rehnquist traveled to England to teach a constitutional law class at Tulane University Law School's program abroad. After several months out of the public eye, Rehnquist administered the oath of office to President George W. Bush at his second inauguration on January 20, 2005, despite doubts about whether his health would permit it. He arrived using a cane, walked very slowly, and left immediately after the oath was administered.[119]

Rehnquist missed 44 oral arguments before the Court in late 2004 and early 2005, returning to the bench on March 21, 2005.[120] He remained involved in Court business during his absence, participating in many decisions and deliberations.[121]

On July 1, 2005, Justice O'Connor announced her impending retirement from the Court after consulting with Rehnquist and learning that he had no intention to retire. To a reporter who asked whether he would be retiring, Rehnquist replied, "That's for me to know and you to find out."[122]

Rehnquist died at his Arlington, Virginia, home on September 3, 2005, four weeks before his 81st birthday. He was the first justice to die in office since Robert H. Jackson in 1954 and the first chief justice to die in office since Fred M. Vinson in 1953.[123][124] He was also the last serving justice appointed by Nixon.

On September 6, 2005, eight of Rehnquist's former law clerks, including John Roberts, his eventual successor, served as pallbearers as his casket was placed on the same catafalque that bore Abraham Lincoln's casket as he lay in state in 1865.[125] Rehnquist's body lay in repose in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building until his funeral on September 7, a Lutheran service conducted at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush and Justice O'Connor eulogized Rehnquist, as did members of his family.[126] Rehnquist's funeral was the largest gathering of political dignitaries at the cathedral since President John F. Kennedy's funeral in 1963. It was followed by a private burial service, in which he was interred next to his wife, Nan, at Arlington National Cemetery.[127][128][129]

Replacement as Chief Justice edit

Rehnquist's death, just over two months after O'Connor announced her impending retirement, left two vacancies for President Bush to fill. On September 5, 2005, Bush withdrew the nomination of John Roberts of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to replace O'Connor as associate justice and instead nominated him to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice. Roberts was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as the new chief justice on September 29, 2005. He had clerked for Rehnquist in 1980–1981.[130] O'Connor, who had made the effective date of her resignation the confirmation of her successor, continued to serve on the Court until Samuel Alito was confirmed and sworn in on January 31, 2006.

Eulogizing Rehnquist in the Harvard Law Review, Roberts wrote that he was "direct, straightforward, utterly without pretense—and a patriot who loved and served his country. He was completely unaffected in manner."[131]

Family life edit

Rehnquist's paternal grandparents immigrated separately from Sweden in 1880. His grandfather Olof Andersson, who changed his surname from the patronymic Andersson to the family name Rehnquist, was born in the province of Värmland; his grandmother was born Adolfina Ternberg in the Vreta Kloster parish in Östergötland. Rehnquist is one of two chief justices of Swedish descent, the other being Earl Warren, who had Norwegian and Swedish ancestry.[132]

Rehnquist married Natalie "Nan" Cornell on August 29, 1953. The daughter of a San Diego physician, she worked as an analyst on the CIA's Austria desk before their marriage.[133] The couple had three children: James, a lawyer and college basketball player; Janet, a lawyer; and Nancy, an editor (including of her father's books) and homemaker.[134][135] Nan Rehnquist died on October 17, 1991, aged 62, of ovarian cancer.[128] Rehnquist was survived by nine grandchildren.[136][137]

Shortly after moving to Washington, D.C., the Rehnquists purchased a home in Greensboro, Vermont, where they spent many vacations.[138]

Books authored edit

  • The Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876. New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 2004. ISBN 0-375-41387-1.
  • All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1998. ISBN 0-688-05142-1.
  • Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson. New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 1992. ISBN 0-679-44661-3.
  • The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1987. ISBN 0-688-05714-4.
  • The Supreme Court: A new edition of the Chief Justice's classic history (Revised ed.). New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 2001. ISBN 0-375-40943-2.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Dean, John (February 2002). The Rehnquist Choice. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-2979-1. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Jenkins, John A. (October 2, 2012). The Partisan: The life of William Rehnquist. PublicAffairs. pp. [search "flatly denied" in Google Books link – page numbers are not listed on preview]. ISBN 978-1-58648-888-8. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  3. ^ Herman J. Obermayer, Rehnquist: A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States (2009 Simon and Schuster) pp.24–26
  4. ^ Rosen, Jeffrey (2005). "Rehnquist the Great?". The Atlantic. from the original on May 10, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2010.
  5. ^ It means, in direct translation to English: reindeer twig.
  6. ^ a b Lane, Charles (2005). . Stanford Magazine. No. July/August. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008. So, for the brainy kid they had called 'Bugs' back home at suburban Shorewood High School, just outside Milwaukee, weather was a key criterion in selecting a college.
  7. ^ "Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HR0622". www.ilga.gov. from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  8. ^ a b c Christopher L. Tomlins (2005). The United States Supreme Court. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-618-32969-4. Retrieved October 21, 2008.
  9. ^ "Volume 04 (1951-1952)".
  10. ^ Jenkins, John A. (October 2, 2012). The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist. PublicAffairs. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-1-58648-887-1. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  11. ^ Biskupic, Joan. Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court became its most influential justice. New York: Harper Collins, 2005
  12. ^ Totenburg, Nina (October 31, 2018). "O'Connor, Rehnquist And A Supreme Marriage Proposal". NPR. from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  13. ^ Biskupic, Joan (September 4, 2005). . USA Today. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  14. ^ William Rehnquist. "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2017., S. Hrg. 99-1067, Hearings Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States (July 29–31, and August 1, 1986).
  15. ^ 1971 confirmation hearings.[citation needed]
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  18. ^ Liptak, Adam (September 11, 2005). "The Memo That Rehnquist Wrote and Had to Disown". The New York Times. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  19. ^ Canellos, Peter S. (August 23, 2005). "Memos may not hold Roberts's opinions". Boston.com. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
  20. ^ Schwartz, Bernard (1988). "Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice Jackson, and the "Brown" Case". Supreme Court Review. 1988 (1988): 245–267. doi:10.1086/scr.1988.3109626. ISSN 0081-9557. JSTOR 3109626. S2CID 147205671.
  21. ^ Kluger, Richard (1976). Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. note 4. pp. 606. ISBN 978-0-394-47289-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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  25. ^ a b Rosen, Jeffery (April 2005). "Rehnquist the Great?". Atlantic Monthly. from the original on January 4, 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2017. ("Rehnquist ultimately embraced the Warren Court's Brown decision, and after he joined the Court he made no attempt to dismantle the civil-rights revolution, as political opponents feared he would").
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  28. ^ Mark Silva (2008). McCain: The Essential Guide to the Republican Nominee: His Character, His Career and Where He Stands. Triumph Books. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-60078-196-4.
  29. ^ McLellan, Dennis (October 24, 2002). "Denison Kitchel, 94; Ran Goldwater's Presidential Bid". Los Angeles Times. from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
  30. ^ Gordon, David (Fall 2001). "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" February 19, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Mises Review.
  31. ^ Roddy, Dennis (December 2, 2000). "Just Our Bill" May 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  32. ^ Wilentz, Amy (August 11, 1986). . Time. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
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  36. ^ a b Dean, John (February 2002). The Rehnquist Choice. Free Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7432-2979-1. Retrieved June 30, 2022.
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  41. ^ Perlstein, Rick (2008), p. 605
  42. ^ a b c d e f g McMillion, Barry J.; Rutkus, Denis Steven (July 6, 2018). "Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2017: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
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  44. ^ Barrett, John Q. (Spring 2007). "The "Federalism Five" as Supreme Court Nominees, 1971-1991". Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. 21 (2): 486. Retrieved February 19, 2022 – via St. John's Law Scholarship Repository.
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  49. ^ Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. 1979. Simon and Schuster. Page 222.
  50. ^ a b c Friedman, Leon. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions, Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 114.
  51. ^ "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases". PBS. from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  52. ^ a b Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. 1979. Simon and Schuster. Page 411.
  53. ^ a b "Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U.S. 762 (1977)". Findlaw. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
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  56. ^ Friedman, Leon. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions, Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 122.
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  58. ^ Von Drehle, David (July 19, 1993). "Redefining Fair With a Simple Careful Assault. Step-by-Step Strategy Produced Strides for Equal Protection". The Washington Post. from the original on February 25, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
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  62. ^ a b c David Garrow, "The Rehnquist Reins", New York Times, October 6, 1996.
  63. ^ Undated 2003–04 Charlie Rose Show interview with Rehnquist.
  64. ^ Woodward & Armstrong, The Brethren 267 (2005) (1979 ed. at __).
  65. ^ The Brethren, 2005 ed. at 498 (1979 ed. at ___).
  66. ^ The Bretheren, 2005 ed. at 268, 499 (1979 ed. at 407–8, __)
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  72. ^ Stern, Seth; Wermiel, Stephen (2013). Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion. University Press of Kansas. p. 475. ISBN 978-0-7006-1912-2.
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  76. ^ Alan S. Oser, "Unenforceable Covenants are in Many Deeds" October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, New York Times (August 1, 1986).

    Mr. Rehnquist has said he was unaware of discriminatory restrictions on properties he bought in Arizona and Vermont, and officials in those states said today that he had never even been required to sign the deeds that contained the restrictions.... He told the committee he would act quickly to get rid of the covenants. The restriction on the Vermont property prohibits the lease or sale of the property to "members of the Hebrew race" ... The discriminatory language appears on the first page of the single-spaced document in the middle of a long paragraph filled with unrelated language regarding sewers and the construction of a mailbox.
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Further reading edit

External links edit

  • William Hubbs Rehnquist at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  • William Rehnquist at Ballotpedia
  • Issue positions and quotes at OnTheIssues
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
    • Booknotes interview with David Savage on Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court, June 28, 1992.
    • Booknotes interview with Rehnquist on Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson, July 5, 1992.
  • Profile at Answers.com
  • "In Memoriam: William H. Rehnquist", (tributes to Rehnquist)
  • Original source William Rehnquist FBI file
  • 1986 Senate confirmation hearing
  • William Rehnquist's FBI files, hosted at the Internet Archive:
    • Part 1
    • Part 2
    • Part 3
    • Part 4
    • Part 5
    • Part 6
  • Supreme Court Associate Justice Nomination Hearings on William Hubbs Rehnquist in November 1971 United States Government Publishing Office
  • Supreme Court Chief Justice Nomination Hearings on William Hubbs Rehnquist in July 1986 United States Government Publishing Office

Opinions edit

  • Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist's Key Decisions – The Washington Post
  • The Legacy of William H. Rehnquist – Majority and Dissenting Opinions in Major Supreme Court Cases October 28, 2005, at the Wayback Machine

February 15, 2024
william, rehnquist, rehnquist, redirects, here, surname, rehnquist, surname, william, hubbs, rehnquist, kwist, october, 1924, september, 2005, american, attorney, jurist, served, supreme, court, years, rehnquist, associate, justice, from, 1972, 1986, 16th, chi. Rehnquist redirects here For the surname see Rehnquist surname William Hubbs Rehnquist ˈ r ɛ n k w ɪ s t REN kwist October 1 1924 September 3 2005 was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U S Supreme Court for 33 years Rehnquist was an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and the 16th chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005 Considered a staunch conservative Rehnquist favored a conception of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment s reservation of powers to the states Under this view of federalism the Court for the first time since the 1930s struck down an act of Congress as exceeding its power under the Commerce Clause William RehnquistOfficial portrait 198616th Chief Justice of the United StatesIn office September 26 1986 September 3 2005Nominated byRonald ReaganPreceded byWarren E BurgerSucceeded byJohn RobertsAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesIn office January 7 1972 September 26 1986Nominated byRichard NixonPreceded byJohn Marshall Harlan IISucceeded byAntonin ScaliaUnited States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal CounselIn office January 29 1969 December 1971PresidentRichard NixonPreceded byFrank WozencraftSucceeded byRalph EricksonPersonal detailsBornWilliam Donald Rehnquist 1924 10 01 October 1 1924Milwaukee Wisconsin U S DiedSeptember 3 2005 2005 09 03 aged 80 Arlington Virginia U S Resting placeArlington National CemeteryPolitical partyRepublicanSpouseNan Cornell m 1953 died 1991 wbr Children3EducationStanford University BA MA LLB Harvard University AM SignatureMilitary serviceAllegiance United StatesBranch service U S Army Air ForceYears of service1943 1946RankSergeantRehnquist grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin and served in the U S Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1946 Afterward he studied political science at Stanford University and Harvard University then attended Stanford Law School where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review and graduated first in his class Rehnquist clerked for Justice Robert H Jackson during the Supreme Court s 1952 1953 term then entered private practice in Phoenix Arizona Rehnquist served as a legal adviser for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in the 1964 U S presidential election and President Richard Nixon appointed him U S Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel in 1969 In that capacity he played a role in forcing Justice Abe Fortas to resign for accepting 20 000 from financier Louis Wolfson before Wolfson was convicted of selling unregistered shares 1 In 1971 Nixon nominated Rehnquist to succeed Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II and the U S Senate confirmed him that year During his confirmation hearings Rehnquist was criticized for allegedly opposing the Supreme Court s decision in Brown v Board of Education 1954 and allegedly taking part in voter suppression efforts targeting minorities as a lawyer in the early 1960s 2 Historians debate whether he committed perjury during the hearings by denying his suppression efforts despite at least ten witnesses to the acts 2 but it is known that at the very least he had defended segregation by private businesses in the early 1960s on the grounds of freedom of association 2 Rehnquist quickly established himself as the Burger Court s most conservative member In 1986 President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to succeed retiring Chief Justice Warren Burger and the Senate confirmed him Rehnquist served as Chief Justice for nearly 19 years making him the fourth longest serving chief justice and the eighth longest serving justice overall He became an intellectual and social leader of the Rehnquist Court earning respect even from the justices who frequently opposed his opinions Though he remained a strong member of the conservative wing of the court Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were often regarded as more conservative As Chief Justice Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton Rehnquist wrote the majority opinions in United States v Lopez 1995 and United States v Morrison 2000 holding in both cases that Congress had exceeded its power under the Commerce Clause He opposed Roe v Wade 1973 and continued to argue that Roe had been incorrectly decided in Planned Parenthood v Casey 1992 In Bush v Gore he voted with the court s majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U S presidential election Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Law clerk at the Supreme Court 3 Private practice 4 Justice Department 5 Associate Justice 5 1 Nomination and confirmation as associate justice 5 2 Tenure as associate justice 5 2 1 Federalism 5 2 2 Equal protection civil rights and abortion 5 2 3 Other issues 5 2 4 View of the rational basis test 5 2 5 Relations on the Court 6 Chief Justice 6 1 Nomination and confirmation as chief justice 6 2 Tenure as chief justice 6 2 1 Presidential oaths administered 6 2 2 Leadership of the Court 6 2 3 Federalism doctrine 6 2 4 Stare decisis 6 2 5 LGBT rights 6 2 6 Civil Rights Act 6 2 7 Religion clauses 6 2 8 First Amendment 6 2 9 Fourteenth Amendment 6 2 10 Bush v Gore 6 2 11 Presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial 7 Legacy 8 Personal health 9 Failing health and death 10 Replacement as Chief Justice 11 Family life 12 Books authored 13 See also 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External links 16 1 OpinionsEarly life and education editRehnquist was born on October 1 1924 and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood His father William Benjamin Rehnquist was a sales manager at various times for printing equipment paper and medical supplies and devices his mother Margery nee Peck the daughter of a local hardware store owner who also served as an officer and director of a small insurance company was a local civic activist as well as a translator and homemaker 3 His paternal grandparents immigrated from Sweden 4 5 Rehnquist graduated from Shorewood High School in 1942 6 He attended Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio for one quarter in the fall of 1942 before enlisting in the U S Army Air Forces the predecessor of the U S Air Force He served from 1943 to 1946 mostly in assignments in the United States He was put into a pre meteorology program and assigned to Denison University until February 1944 when the program was shut down He served three months at Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma City three months in Carlsbad New Mexico and then went to Hondo Texas for a few months He was then chosen for another training program which began at Chanute Field Illinois and ended at Fort Monmouth New Jersey The program was designed to teach maintenance and repair of weather instruments In the summer of 1945 Rehnquist went overseas as a weather observer in North Africa 7 After leaving the military in 1946 Rehnquist attended Stanford University with financial assistance from the G I Bill 8 He graduated in 1948 with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in political science and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa He did graduate study in government at Harvard University where he received another Master of Arts in 1950 He then returned to Stanford to attend the Stanford Law School where he was an editor on the Stanford Law Review 9 Rehnquist was strongly conservative from an early age and wrote that he hated liberal Justice Hugo Black in his diary at Stanford 10 He graduated in 1952 ranked first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws 8 Rehnquist was in the same class at Stanford Law as Sandra Day O Connor with whom he would later serve on the Supreme Court They briefly dated during law school 11 and Rehnquist proposed marriage to her O Connor declined as she was by then dating her future husband this was not publicly known until 2018 12 Rehnquist married Nan Cornell in 1953 Law clerk at the Supreme Court editAfter law school Rehnquist served as a law clerk for U S Supreme Court justice Robert H Jackson from 1952 to 1953 13 While clerking for Jackson he wrote a memorandum arguing against federal court ordered school desegregation while the Court was considering the landmark case Brown v Board of Education which was decided in 1954 Rehnquist s 1952 memo A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases defended the separate but equal doctrine In the memo Rehnquist wrote To the argument that a majority may not deprive a minority of its constitutional right the answer must be made that while this is sound in theory in the long run it is the majority who will determine what the constitutional rights of the minority are I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position for which I have been excoriated by liberal colleagues but I think Plessy v Ferguson was right and should be reaffirmed 14 In both his 1971 United States Senate confirmation hearing for Associate Justice and his 1986 hearing for Chief Justice Rehnquist testified that the memorandum reflected Jackson s views rather than his own Rehnquist said I believe that the memorandum was prepared by me as a statement of Justice Jackson s tentative views for his own use 15 Jackson s longtime secretary and confidante Elsie Douglas said during Rehnquist s 1986 hearings that his allegation was a smear of a great man for whom I served as secretary for many years Justice Jackson did not ask law clerks to express his views He expressed his own and they expressed theirs That is what happened in this instance 16 But Justices Douglas s and Frankfurter s papers indicate that Jackson voted for Brown in 1954 only after changing his mind 17 At his 1986 hearing for chief justice Rehnquist tried to further distance himself from the 1952 memo saying The bald statement that Plessy was right and should be reaffirmed was not an accurate reflection of my own views at the time 18 But he acknowledged defending Plessy in arguments with fellow law clerks 19 Several commentators have concluded that the memo reflected Rehnquist s own views not Jackson s 20 21 A biography of Jackson corroborates this stating that Jackson instructed his clerks to express their views not his 22 Further corroboration is found in a 2012 Boston College Law Review article that analyzes a 1955 letter to Frankfurter that criticized Jackson 23 In any event while serving on the Supreme Court Rehnquist made no effort to reverse or undermine Brown and often relied on it as precedent 24 25 In 1985 he said there was a perfectly reasonable argument against Brown and in favor of Plessy even though he now saw Brown as correct 22 In a memorandum to Jackson about Terry v Adams 26 which involved the right of blacks to vote in Texas primaries where a non binding white only pre election was being used to preselect the winner before the actual primary Rehnquist wrote The Constitution does not prevent the majority from banding together nor does it attaint success in the effort It is about time the Court faced the fact that the white people of the south do not like the colored people The constitution restrains them from effecting this dislike through state action but it most assuredly did not appoint the Court as a sociological watchdog to rear up every time private discrimination raises its admittedly ugly head 6 In another memorandum to Jackson about the same case Rehnquist wrote several of the Yale law professor Fred Rodell school of thought among the clerks began screaming as soon as they saw this that Now we can show those damn southerners etc I take a dim view of this pathological search for discrimination and as a result I now have something of a mental block against the case 27 Nevertheless Rehnquist recommended to Jackson that the Supreme Court should agree to hear Terry Private practice editAfter his Supreme Court clerkship Rehnquist entered private practice in Phoenix Arizona where he worked from 1953 to 1969 He began his legal work in the firm of Denison Kitchel subsequently serving as the national manager of Barry M Goldwater s 1964 presidential campaign Prominent clients included Jim Hensley John McCain s future father in law 28 During these years Rehnquist was active in the Republican Party and served as a legal advisor under Kitchel to Goldwater s campaign 29 He collaborated with Harry Jaffa on Goldwater s speeches 30 During both his 1971 hearing for associate justice and his 1986 hearing for chief justice several people came forward to allege that Rehnquist had participated in Operation Eagle Eye a Republican Party voter suppression operation in the early 1960s in Arizona to challenge minority voters 31 Rehnquist denied the charges and Vincent Maggiore then chairman of the Phoenix area Democratic Party said he had never heard any negative reports about Rehnquist s Election Day activities All of these things Maggiore said would have come through me 32 Justice Department editWhen Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 Rehnquist returned to work in Washington He served as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1969 to 1971 33 In this role he served as the chief lawyer to Attorney General John Mitchell Nixon mistakenly called him Renchburg in several of the tapes of Oval Office conversations revealed during the Watergate investigations 34 Rehnquist played a role in the investigation of Justice Abe Fortas for accepting 20 000 from Louis Wolfson a financier under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission 35 Although other justices had made similar arrangements Nixon saw the Wolfson payment as a political opportunity to cement a conservative majority on the Supreme Court 35 Nixon wanted the Justice Department to investigate Fortas but was unsure if this was legal as there was no precedent for such an activity 36 Rehnquist sent Attorney General John N Mitchell a memo arguing that an investigation would not violate the separation of powers 36 Rehnquist did not handle the direct investigation but was told by Mitchell to assume the most damaging set of inferences about the case were true and determine what action the Justice Department could take 37 The worst inference Rehnquist could draw was that Fortas had somehow intervened in the prosecution of Wolfson which was untrue 37 Based on this false accusation Rehnquist argued that the Justice Department could investigate Fortas 37 After being investigated by Mitchell who threatened to also investigate his wife Fortas resigned 38 Because he was well placed in the Justice Department many suspected Rehnquist could have been the source known as Deep Throat during the Watergate scandal 39 Once Bob Woodward revealed on May 31 2005 that W Mark Felt was Deep Throat this speculation ended Associate Justice edit nbsp Portrait of Rehnquist as an associate justice in 1972Nomination and confirmation as associate justice edit On October 21 1971 President Nixon nominated Rehnquist as an associate justice of the Supreme Court to succeed John Marshall Harlan II 40 Henry Kissinger initially proposed Rehnquist for the position to presidential advisor H R Haldeman and asked Rehnquist is pretty far right isn t he Haldeman responded Oh Christ He s way to the right of Buchanan 41 referring to then presidential advisor Patrick Buchanan Rehnquist s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee took place in early November 1971 42 43 In addition to answering questions about school desegregation and racial discrimination in voting Rehnquist was asked about his views on the extent of presidential power the Vietnam War the anti war movement and law enforcement surveillance methods 44 On November 23 1971 the committee voted 12 4 to send the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation 42 43 On December 10 1971 the Senate first voted 52 42 against a cloture motion that would have allowed the Senate to end debate on Rehnquist s nomination and vote on whether to confirm him 42 45 The Senate then voted 22 70 to reject a motion to postpone consideration of his confirmation until July 18 1972 42 Later that day the Senate voted 68 26 to confirm Rehnquist 42 46 and he took the judicial oath of office on January 7 1972 47 There were two Supreme Court vacancies in the fall of 1971 The other was filled by Lewis F Powell Jr who took office on the same day as Rehnquist to replace Hugo Black 46 47 Tenure as associate justice edit On the Court Rehnquist promptly established himself as Nixon s most conservative appointee taking a narrow view of the Fourteenth Amendment and a broad view of state power in domestic policy He almost always voted with the prosecution in criminal cases with business in antitrust cases with employers in labor cases and with the government in speech cases 48 Rehnquist was often a lone dissenter in cases early on but his views later often became the Court s majority view 8 Federalism edit For years Rehnquist was determined to keep cases involving individual rights in state courts out of federal reach 48 49 In National League of Cities v Usery 1977 his majority opinion invalidated a federal law extending minimum wage and maximum hours provisions to state and local government employees 50 Rehnquist wrote this exercise of congressional authority does not comport with the federal system of government embodied in the Constitution 50 Equal protection civil rights and abortion edit Rehnquist rejected a broad view of the Fourteenth Amendment In 1952 while clerking for Jackson Rehnquist wrote a memorandum concluding that Plessy v Ferguson was right and should be re affirmed If the Fourteenth Amendment did not enact Spencer s Social Statics it just as surely did not enact Myrddahl s American Dilemma An American Dilemma by which he meant that the Court should not read its own sociological views into the Constitution 51 Rehnquist believed the Fourteenth Amendment was meant only as a solution to the problems of slavery and was not to be applied to abortion rights or prisoner s rights 48 52 He believed the Court had no business reflecting society s changing and expanding values and that this was Congress s domain 48 Rehnquist tried to weave his view of the Amendment into his opinion for Fitzpatrick v Bitzer but the other justices rejected it 52 He later extended what he said he saw as the Amendment s scope writing in Trimble v Gordon except in the area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply classifications based on race or on national origin 53 During the Burger Court s deliberations over Roe v Wade Rehnquist promoted his view that courts jurisdiction does not apply to abortion 54 Rehnquist voted against the expansion of school desegregation plans and the establishment of legalized abortions dissenting in Roe v Wade He expressed his views about the Equal Protection Clause in cases like Trimble v Gordon 53 Unfortunately more than a century of decisions under this Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment have produced a syndrome wherein this Court seems to regard the Equal Protection Clause as a cat o nine tails to be kept in the judicial closet as a threat to legislatures which may in the view of the judiciary get out of hand and pass arbitrary illogical or unreasonable laws Except in the area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply classifications based on race or on national origin the first cousin of race the Court s decisions can fairly be described as an endless tinkering with legislative judgments a series of conclusions unsupported by any central guiding principle Other issues edit Rehnquist consistently defended state sanctioned prayer in public schools 22 He held a restrictive view of criminals and prisoners rights and believed capital punishment to be constitutional 55 He supported the view that the Fourth Amendment permitted a warrantless search incident to a valid arrest 56 In Nixon v Administrator of General Services 1977 Rehnquist dissented from a decision upholding the constitutionality of an act that gave a federal agency administrator certain authority over former President Nixon s presidential papers and tape recordings 57 He dissented solely on the ground that the law was a clear violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers 50 57 During oral argument in Duren v Missouri 1978 the Court faced a challenge to laws and practices that made jury duty voluntary for women in that state At the end of Ruth Bader Ginsburg s oral presentation Rehnquist asked her You will not settle for putting Susan B Anthony on the new dollar then 58 Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion in Diamond v Diehr 450 U S 175 1981 which began a gradual trend toward overturning the ban on software patents in the United States first established in Parker v Flook 437 U S 584 1978 In Sony Corp of America v Universal City Studios Inc pertaining to video cassette recorders such as the Betamax system John Paul Stevens wrote an opinion providing a broad fair use doctrine while Rehnquist joined the dissent supporting stronger copyrights In Eldred v Ashcroft 537 U S 186 2003 Rehnquist was in the majority favoring the copyright holders with Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissenting in favor of a narrower construction of copyright law View of the rational basis test edit Harvard University law professor David Shapiro wrote that as an associate justice Rehnquist disliked even minimal inquiries into legislative objectives except in the areas of race national origin and infringement of specific constitutional guarantees 59 For Rehnquist the rational basis test was not a standard for weighing the interests of the government against the individual but a label to describe a preordained result 59 In 1978 Shapiro pointed out that Rehnquist had avoided joining rational basis determinations for years except in one case Weinberger v Wiesenfeld 59 In Trimble v Gordon Rehnquist eschewed the majority s approach to equal protection writing in dissent that the state s distinction should be sustained because it was not mindless and patently irrational 59 The Court struck down an Illinois law allowing illegitimate children to inherit by intestate succession only from their mothers Shapiro wrote that Rehnquist seemed content to find a sufficient relationship between a challenged classification and perceived governmental interests no matter how tenuous or speculative that relationship might be 59 60 A practical result of Rehnquist s view of rational basis can be seen in Cleveland Board of Education v LaFleur wherein the Court s majority struck down a school board rule that required every pregnant teacher to take unpaid maternity leave beginning five months before the expected birth of her child 60 Lewis Powell had written an opinion resting on the ground that the school board rule was too inclusive to survive equal protection analysis 60 In dissent Rehnquist attacked Powell s opinion saying If legislative bodies are to be permitted to draw a line anywhere short of the delivery room I can find no judicial standard of measurement which says the ones drawn here were invalid 60 Shapiro writes that Rehnquist s opinion implied That there is no constitutionally significant difference between a classification that encompasses virtually no one outside the scope of its purpose and a classification so overinclusive that the vast majority of those falling within are beyond its intended scope 60 Rehnquist s dissent in United States Department of Agriculture v Murry illuminates his view that a classification should pass muster under the rational basis test so long as that classification is not entirely counterproductive with respect to the purposes of the legislation in which it is contained 61 Shapiro alleges that Rehnquist s stance makes rational basis a virtual nullity 60 Relations on the Court edit Rehnquist quickly became well liked and developed friendly personal relations with his colleagues even with ideological opposites William J Brennan Jr startled one acquaintance by informing him that Bill Rehnquist is my best friend up here 62 Rehnquist and William O Douglas bonded over a shared iconoclasm and love of the West 63 The Brethren claims that the Court s liberals found it hard not to like the good natured thoughtful Rehnquist despite finding his legal philosophy extreme 64 and that Potter Stewart regarded Rehnquist as excellent and a team player a part of the group in the center of the court even though he usually ended up in the conservative bloc 65 Since Rehnquist s first years on the Supreme Court other justices criticized what they saw as his willingness to cut corners to reach a conservative result gloss ing over inconsistencies of logic or fact or distinguishing indistinct cases to reach their destination 66 67 In Jefferson v Hackney for example Douglas and Thurgood Marshall charged that Rehnquist s opinion misrepresented the legislative history 68 of a federal welfare program 69 Rehnquist did not correct what The Brethren characterizes as an outright misstatement and thus publish ed an opinion that twisted the facts 68 His misuse of precedents in another case shocked Stevens 70 For his part Rehnquist was often contemptuous of Brennan s opinions seeing them as bending the facts or law to suit his purposes 71 Rehnquist had a tense relationship with Marshall who sometimes accused him of bigotry 72 Rehnquist usually voted with Chief Justice Warren Burger 73 and recognizing the importance of his relationship with Burger often went along to get along joining Burger s majority opinions even when he disagreed with them and in important cases tr ying to straighten him out 71 Even so being reluctant to compromise Rehnquist was the most frequent sole dissenter during the Burger Court garnering the nickname the Lone Ranger 22 Chief Justice editFurther information Rehnquist Court nbsp William Rehnquist left takes the oath as Chief Justice from retiring Warren Burger at the White House in 1986 as his wife Natalie holds a Bible President Ronald Reagan and Justice Antonin Scalia look onNomination and confirmation as chief justice edit When Burger retired in 1986 President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist for chief justice Although Rehnquist was far more conservative than Burger 74 his colleagues were unanimously pleased and supportive even his ideological opposites 62 The nomination was met with genuine enthusiasm on the part of not only his colleagues on the Court but others who served the Court in a staff capacity and some of the relatively lowly paid individuals at the Court There was almost a unanimous feeling of joy 62 Thurgood Marshall later called him a great chief justice 25 The nomination was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 20 1986 This was the first confirmation hearing on a chief justice nominee to be opened to gavel to gavel television coverage 75 During the hearing Senator Ted Kennedy challenged Rehnquist on his unwitting ownership of property that had a restrictive covenant against sale to Jews 76 such covenants were held to be unenforceable under the 1948 Supreme Court case Shelley v Kraemer Along with senators Joe Biden and Howard Metzenbaum Kennedy called Rehnquist insensitive to minorities and women s rights while on the court 77 Rehnquist also drew criticism for his membership in the Washington D C Alfalfa Club which at the time did not allow women to join 78 On August 14 the Judiciary Committee voted 13 5 to report the nomination to the Senate with a favorable recommendation 42 Despite various Democrats efforts to defeat the nomination the Senate confirmed Rehnquist on September 17 After cloture was invoked in a 68 31 vote 42 Rehnquist was confirmed in a 65 33 vote 49 Republicans and 16 Democrats voted in favor 31 Democrats and two Republicans voted against 77 He took office on September 26 becoming the first person since Harlan F Stone to serve as both an associate justice and chief justice Rehnquist s associate justice successor Antonin Scalia was sworn into office that same day 75 Rehnquist had no prior experience as a judge upon his appointment to the Court His only experience in presiding over a case at the trial level was in 1984 when Judge D Dortch Warriner invited him to preside over a civil case Julian D Heislup Sr and Linda L Dixon Appellees v Town of Colonial Beach Virginia et al Exercising the authority of a Supreme Court justice to preside over lower court proceedings he oversaw the jury trial involving allegations that police department employees civil rights were violated when they testified in a matter involving alleged police brutality against a teenage boy 79 Rehnquist ruled for the plaintiffs in a number of motions allowing the case to go to the jury When the jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded damages the defendants appealed The appeal was argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 4 1986 16 days before Rehnquist was nominated as chief justice Forty three days after Rehnquist was sworn in as chief justice the Fourth Circuit reversed the judgment overruling Rehnquist and concluding that there was insufficient evidence to have sent the matter to the jury 80 Tenure as chief justice edit Presidential oaths administered edit In his capacity as chief justice Rehnquist administered the Oath of Office to the following presidents of the United States George H W Bush in 1989 Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1997 George W Bush in 2001 and 2005Leadership of the Court edit Rehnquist tightened up the justices conferences keeping justices from going too long or off track and not allowing any justice to speak twice until each had spoken once and gained a reputation for scrupulous fairness in assigning opinions Rehnquist assigned no justice including himself two opinions before everyone had been assigned one and made no attempts to interfere with assignments for cases in which he was in the minority Most significantly he successfully lobbied Congress in 1988 to give the Court control of its own docket cutting back on mandatory appeals and certiorari grants in general 81 Rehnquist added four yellow stripes to the sleeves of his robe in 1995 A lifelong fan of Gilbert and Sullivan operas he liked the Lord Chancellor s costume in a community theater production of Iolanthe and thereafter appeared in court with the same striped sleeves 82 His successor Chief Justice John Roberts chose not to continue the practice 83 Federalism doctrine edit Scholars expected Rehnquist to push the Supreme Court in a more conservative direction during his tenure Many commentators expected to see the federal government s power limited and state governments power increased 84 However legal reporter Jan Crawford has said that some of Rehnquist s victories toward the federalist goal of scaling back congressional power over the states had little practical impact 85 Rehnquist voted with the majority in City of Boerne v Flores 1997 and referred to that decision as precedent for requiring Congress to defer to the Court when interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment including the Equal Protection Clause in a number of cases Boerne held that any statute that Congress enacted to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment including the Equal Protection Clause had to show a congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end The Rehnquist Court s congruence and proportionality theory replaced the ratchet theory that had arguably been advanced in Katzenbach v Morgan 1966 86 According to the ratchet theory Congress could ratchet up civil rights beyond what the Court had recognized but Congress could not ratchet down judicially recognized rights According to the majority opinion of Justice Anthony Kennedy which Rehnquist joined in Boerne There is language in our opinion in Katzenbach v Morgan 384 U S 641 1966 which could be interpreted as acknowledging a power in Congress to enact legislation that expands the rights contained in 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment This is not a necessary interpretation however or even the best one If Congress could define its own powers by altering the Fourteenth Amendment s meaning no longer would the Constitution be superior paramount law unchangeable by ordinary means The Rehnquist Court s congruence and proportionality standard made it easier to revive older precedents preventing Congress from going too far 87 in enforcing equal protection of the laws 88 One of the Rehnquist Court s major developments involved reinforcing and extending the doctrine of sovereign immunity 89 which limits the ability of Congress to subject non consenting states to lawsuits by individual citizens seeking money damages In both Kimel v Florida Board of Regents 2000 and Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v Garrett 2001 the Court held that Congress had exceeded its power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause In both cases Rehnquist was in the majority that held discrimination by states based upon age or disability as opposed to race or gender need satisfy only rational basis review as opposed to strict scrutiny nbsp Rehnquist at the National Archives Rotunda in 2003Though the Eleventh Amendment by its terms applies only to suits against a state by citizens of another state the Rehnquist Court often extended this principle to suits by citizens against their own states One such case was Alden v Maine 1999 in which the Court held that the authority to subject states to private suits does not follow from any of the express enumerated powers in Article I of the Constitution and therefore looked to the Necessary and Proper Clause to see whether it authorized Congress to subject the states to lawsuits by the state s own citizens Rehnquist agreed with Kennedy s statement that such lawsuits were not necessary and proper Nor can we conclude that the specific Article I powers delegated to Congress necessarily include by virtue of the Necessary and Proper Clause or otherwise the incidental authority to subject the States to private suits as a means of achieving objectives otherwise within the scope of the enumerated powers Rehnquist also led the Court toward a more limited view of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause For example he wrote for a 5 to 4 majority in United States v Lopez 514 U S 549 1995 striking down a federal law as exceeding congressional power under the Clause Lopez was followed by United States v Morrison 529 U S 598 2000 in which Rehnquist wrote the Court s opinion striking down the civil damages portion of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 as regulating conduct that has no significant direct effect on interstate commerce Rehnquist s majority opinion in Morrison also rejected an Equal Protection argument on the Act s behalf All four dissenters disagreed with the Court s interpretation of the Commerce Clause and two dissenters Stevens and Breyer also took issue with the Court s Equal Protection analysis David Souter asserted that the Court was improperly seeking to convert the judiciary into a shield against the commerce power Rehnquist s majority opinion in Morrison cited precedents limiting the Equal Protection Clause s scope such as United States v Cruikshank 1876 which held that the Fourteenth Amendment applied only to state actions not private acts of violence Breyer joined by Stevens agreed with the majority that it is certainly so that Congress may not use the Fourteenth Amendment as a source of power to remedy the conduct of private persons but took issue with another aspect of the Morrison Court s Equal Protection analysis arguing that cases that the majority had cited including United States v Harris and the Civil Rights Cases regarding lynching and segregation respectively did not consider this kind of claim in which state actors failed to provide adequate or any state remedies In response the Morrison majority asserted that the Violence Against Women Act was directed not at any State or state actor but at individuals who have committed criminal acts motivated by gender bias The federalist trend Lopez and Morrison set was seemingly halted by Gonzales v Raich 2005 in which the Court broadly interpreted the Commerce Clause to allow Congress to prohibit the intrastate cultivation of medicinal cannabis Rehnquist O Connor and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented in Raich Rehnquist authored the majority opinion in South Dakota v Dole 1987 upholding Congress s reduction of funds to states not complying with the national 21 year old drinking age Rehnquist s broad reading of Congress s spending power was also seen as a major limitation on the Rehnquist Court s push to redistribute power from the federal government to the states According to law professor Erwin Chemerinsky 90 Rehnquist presided over a federalist revolution as chief justice but Cato Institute scholar Roger Pilon has said that t he Rehnquist court has revived the doctrine of federalism albeit only at the edges and in very easy cases 91 Stare decisis edit Some commentators expected the Rehnquist Court to overrule several controversial decisions broadly interpreting the Bill of Rights 22 But the Rehnquist Court expressly declined to overrule Miranda v Arizona in Dickerson v United States Rehnquist believed that federal judges should not impose their personal views on the law or stray beyond the framers intent by reading broad meaning into the Constitution he saw himself as an apostle of judicial restraint 22 Columbia Law School Professor Vincent Blasi said of Rehnquist in 1986 that n obody since the 1930s has been so niggardly in interpreting the Bill of Rights so blatant in simply ignoring years and years of precedent 22 In the same article Rehnquist was quoted as retorting that such attacks come from liberal academics and that on occasion they write somewhat disingenuously about me Rehnquist disagreed with Roe v Wade In 1992 Roe survived by a 5 4 vote in Planned Parenthood v Casey which relied heavily on the doctrine of stare decisis Dissenting in Casey Rehnquist criticized the Court s newly minted variation on stare decisis and asserted that Roe was wrongly decided and that it can and should be overruled consistently with our traditional approach to stare decisis in constitutional cases 92 The Court decided another abortion case this time dealing with partial birth abortion in Stenberg v Carhart 2000 Again the vote was 5 4 and again Rehnquist dissented urging that stare decisis not be the sole consideration I did not join the joint opinion in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa v Casey 505 U S 833 1992 and continue to believe that case is wrongly decided LGBT rights edit In a 1977 dissent in the case of Ratchford v Gay Lib Rehnquist gave weight to the pseudoscientific notion that homosexuality is contagious 93 94 Rehnquist joined the majority opinion in Bowers v Hardwick upholding the outlawing of gay sex acts as constitutional and did not join Chief Justice Burger s concurrence 95 In Romer v Evans 1996 Colorado adopted an amendment to the state constitution that would have prevented any municipality within the state from taking any legislative executive or judicial action to protect citizens from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation Rehnquist joined Scalia s dissent which argued that since the Constitution says nothing about this subject it is left to be resolved by normal democratic means The dissent argued as follows some punctuation omitted General laws and policies that prohibit arbitrary discrimination would continue to prohibit discrimination on the basis of homosexual conduct as well This lays to rest such horribles raised in the course of oral argument as the prospect that assaults upon homosexuals could not be prosecuted The amendment prohibits special treatment of homosexuals and nothing more It would not affect for example a requirement of state law that pensions be paid to all retiring state employees with a certain length of service homosexual employees as well as others would be entitled to that benefit The dissent mentioned the Court s then existing precedent in Bowers v Hardwick 1986 that the Constitution does not prohibit what virtually all States had done from the founding of the Republic until very recent years making homosexual conduct a crime By analogy the Romer dissent reasoned that If it is rational to criminalize the conduct surely it is rational to deny special favor and protection to those with a self avowed tendency or desire to engage in the conduct The dissent listed murder polygamy and cruelty to animals as behaviors that the Constitution allows states to be very hostile toward and said the degree of hostility reflected by Amendment 2 is the smallest conceivable It added I would not myself indulge in official praise for heterosexual monogamy because I think it no business of the courts as opposed to the political branches to take sides in this culture war But the Court today has done so not only by inventing a novel and extravagant constitutional doctrine to take the victory away from traditional forces but even by verbally disparaging as bigotry adherence to traditional attitudes In Lawrence v Texas 2003 the Supreme Court overruled Bowers Rehnquist again dissented along with Scalia and Thomas The Court s result in Romer had described the struck down statute as a status based enactment divorced from any factual context from which we could discern a relationship to legitimate state interests 96 The sentiment behind that statute had led the Court to evaluate it with a more searching form of review 97 Similarly in Lawrence moral disapproval was found to be an unconstitutional basis for condemning a group of people 97 The Court protected homosexual behavior in the name of liberty and autonomy 97 Rehnquist sometimes reached results favorable to homosexuals for example voting to allow a gay CIA employee to sue on the basis of constitutional law for improper personnel practices although barring suit on the basis of administrative law in deference to a claim of national security reasons 98 to allow same sex sexual harassment claims to be adjudicated 99 and to allow the University of Wisconsin Madison to require students to pay a mandatory fee that subsidized gay groups along with other student organizations 100 Because of his votes in gay rights cases ACT UP included Rehnquist alongside Ronald Reagan George H W Bush Jerry Falwell and Jesse Helms in a series of posters denouncing what it regarded as leading figures in the anti gay movement in America 101 Civil Rights Act edit In Alexander v Sandoval 2001 which involved the issue of whether a citizen could sue a state for not providing driver s license exams in languages other than English Rehnquist voted with the majority in denying a private right to sue for discrimination based on race or national origin involving disparate impact under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Sandoval cited Cannon v University of Chicago 1979 as precedent The Court ruled 5 4 that various facts regarding disparate impact mentioned in a footnote of Cannon were not part of the holding of Cannon The majority also viewed it as significant that 602 of Title VI did not repeat the rights creating language race color or national origin in 601 Religion clauses edit In 1992 Rehnquist joined a dissenting opinion in Lee v Weisman arguing that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment only forbids government from preferring one particular religion over another 102 Souter wrote a separate concurrence specifically addressed to Rehnquist on this issue 102 Rehnquist also led the way in allowing greater state assistance to religious schools writing another 5 to 4 majority opinion in Zelman v Simmons Harris that approved a school voucher program that aided church schools along with other private schools In Van Orden v Perry 2005 Rehnquist wrote the plurality opinion upholding the constitutionality of a display of the Ten Commandments at the Texas state capitol in Austin He wrote Our cases Janus like point in two directions in applying the Establishment Clause One face looks toward the strong role played by religion and religious traditions throughout our Nation s history The other face looks toward the principle that governmental intervention in religious matters can itself endanger religious freedom This opinion was joined by Scalia Thomas Breyer and Kennedy First Amendment edit University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone has written that Rehnquist was by an impressive margin the justice least likely to invalidate a law as violating the freedom of speech or of the press 103 Burger was 1 8 times more likely to vote in favor of the First Amendment Scalia 1 6 times Thomas 1 5 times 103 Excluding unanimous Court decisions Rehnquist voted to reject First Amendment claims 92 of the time 103 In issues involving freedom of the press he rejected First Amendment claims 100 of the time 103 Stone wrote There were only three areas in which Rehnquist showed any interest in enforcing the constitutional guarantee of free expression in cases involving advertising religious expression and campaign finance regulation 103 But as he did in Bigelow v Commonwealth of Virginia Rehnquist voted against freedom of advertising if an advertisement involved birth control or abortion Fourteenth Amendment edit Rehnquist wrote a concurrence agreeing to strike down the male only admissions policy of the Virginia Military Institute as violating the Equal Protection Clause 104 105 but declined to join the majority opinion s basis for using the Fourteenth Amendment writing Had Virginia made a genuine effort to devote comparable public resources to a facility for women and followed through on such a plan it might well have avoided an equal protection violation 105 This rationale supported facilities separated on the basis of gender It is not the exclusion of women that violates the Equal Protection Clause but the maintenance of an all men school without providing any much less a comparable institution for women It would be a sufficient remedy I think if the two institutions offered the same quality of education and were of the same overall caliber 105 Rehnquist remained skeptical about the Court s Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence some of his opinions most favorable to equality resulted from statutory rather than constitutional interpretation For example in Meritor Savings Bank v Vinson 1986 Rehnquist established a hostile environment sexual harassment cause of action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 including protection against psychological aspects of harassment in the workplace Bush v Gore edit In 2000 Rehnquist wrote a concurring opinion in Bush v Gore the case that ended the presidential election controversy in Florida agreeing with four other justices that the Equal Protection Clause barred the standardless manual recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court Presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial edit See also Impeachment trial of Bill Clinton nbsp Rehnquist serving as presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trialIn 1999 Rehnquist became the second chief justice after Salmon P Chase to preside over a presidential impeachment trial during the proceedings against President Bill Clinton He was a generally passive presiding officer once commenting on his stint as presiding officer I did nothing in particular and I did it very well 106 In 1992 Rehnquist wrote Grand Inquests a book analyzing both the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the impeachment of Samuel Chase 107 Legacy editJeffery Rosen has argued that Rehnquist s tactical flexibility was more effective than the rigid purity of Scalia and Thomas 108 Rosen writes In truth Rehnquist carefully staked out a limbo between the right and the left and showed that it was a very good place to be With exceptional efficiency and amiability he led a Court that put the brakes on some of the excesses of the Earl Warren era while keeping pace with the sentiments of a majority of the country generally siding with economic conservatives and against cultural conservatives As for judicial temperament he was far more devoted to preserving tradition and majority rule than the generation of fire breathing conservatives who followed him And his administration of the Court was brilliantly if quietly effective making him one of the most impressive chief justices of the past hundred years In The Partisan The Life of William Rehnquist biographer John A Jenkins was critical of Rehnquist s history with racial discrimination He noted that as a private citizen Rehnquist had protested Brown v Board of Education and as a justice consistently ruled against racial minorities in affirmative action cases Only when white males began to make reverse discrimination claims did he become sympathetic to equal protection arguments 109 Charles Fried has described the Rehnquist Court s project as to reverse not the course of history but the course of constitutional doctrine s abdication to politics 110 Legal reporter Jan Greenburg has said that conservative critics noted that the Rehnquist Court did little to overturn the left s successes in the lower courts and in some cases actively furthered them 111 But in 2005 law professor John Yoo wrote It is telling to see how many of Rehnquist s views considered outside the mainstream at the time by professors and commentators the court has now adopted 112 Personal health editAfter Rehnquist s death in 2005 the FBI honored a Freedom of Information Act request detailing the Bureau s background investigation before Rehnquist s nomination as chief justice The files reveal that for a period Rehnquist had been addicted to Placidyl a drug widely prescribed for insomnia It was not until he was hospitalized that doctors learned of the extent of his dependency Freeman Cary a U S Capitol physician prescribed Rehnquist Placidyl for insomnia and back pain from 1972 to 1981 in doses exceeding the recommended limits but the FBI report concluded that Rehnquist was already taking the drug as early as 1970 113 By the time he sought treatment Rehnquist was taking three times the prescribed dose of the drug nightly 114 On December 27 1981 Rehnquist entered George Washington University Hospital for treatment of back pain and Placidyl dependency There he underwent a monthlong detoxification process 114 While hospitalized he had typical withdrawal symptoms including hallucinations and paranoia For example One doctor said Rehnquist thought he heard voices outside his hospital room plotting against him and had bizarre ideas and outrageous thoughts including imagining a CIA plot against him and seeming to see the design patterns on the hospital curtains change configuration 115 For several weeks before his hospitalization Rehnquist had slurred his words but there were no indications he was otherwise impaired 113 116 Law professor Michael Dorf observed that none of the Justices law clerks or others who served with Rehnquist have so much as hinted that his Placidyl addiction affected his work beyond its impact on his speech 117 Failing health and death edit nbsp An ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist administers the presidential oath of office to President George W Bush at his inauguration in 2005 as First Lady Laura Bush looks on Note Rehnquist s addition of the gold stripes on his robes nbsp Rehnquist s grave which is next to his wife Nan at Arlington National CemeteryOn October 26 2004 the Supreme Court press office announced that Rehnquist had recently been diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid cancer 118 In the summer of 2004 Rehnquist traveled to England to teach a constitutional law class at Tulane University Law School s program abroad After several months out of the public eye Rehnquist administered the oath of office to President George W Bush at his second inauguration on January 20 2005 despite doubts about whether his health would permit it He arrived using a cane walked very slowly and left immediately after the oath was administered 119 Rehnquist missed 44 oral arguments before the Court in late 2004 and early 2005 returning to the bench on March 21 2005 120 He remained involved in Court business during his absence participating in many decisions and deliberations 121 On July 1 2005 Justice O Connor announced her impending retirement from the Court after consulting with Rehnquist and learning that he had no intention to retire To a reporter who asked whether he would be retiring Rehnquist replied That s for me to know and you to find out 122 Rehnquist died at his Arlington Virginia home on September 3 2005 four weeks before his 81st birthday He was the first justice to die in office since Robert H Jackson in 1954 and the first chief justice to die in office since Fred M Vinson in 1953 123 124 He was also the last serving justice appointed by Nixon On September 6 2005 eight of Rehnquist s former law clerks including John Roberts his eventual successor served as pallbearers as his casket was placed on the same catafalque that bore Abraham Lincoln s casket as he lay in state in 1865 125 Rehnquist s body lay in repose in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building until his funeral on September 7 a Lutheran service conducted at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle in Washington D C President George W Bush and Justice O Connor eulogized Rehnquist as did members of his family 126 Rehnquist s funeral was the largest gathering of political dignitaries at the cathedral since President John F Kennedy s funeral in 1963 It was followed by a private burial service in which he was interred next to his wife Nan at Arlington National Cemetery 127 128 129 Replacement as Chief Justice editRehnquist s death just over two months after O Connor announced her impending retirement left two vacancies for President Bush to fill On September 5 2005 Bush withdrew the nomination of John Roberts of the D C Circuit Court of Appeals to replace O Connor as associate justice and instead nominated him to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice Roberts was confirmed by the U S Senate and sworn in as the new chief justice on September 29 2005 He had clerked for Rehnquist in 1980 1981 130 O Connor who had made the effective date of her resignation the confirmation of her successor continued to serve on the Court until Samuel Alito was confirmed and sworn in on January 31 2006 Eulogizing Rehnquist in the Harvard Law Review Roberts wrote that he was direct straightforward utterly without pretense and a patriot who loved and served his country He was completely unaffected in manner 131 Family life editRehnquist s paternal grandparents immigrated separately from Sweden in 1880 His grandfather Olof Andersson who changed his surname from the patronymic Andersson to the family name Rehnquist was born in the province of Varmland his grandmother was born Adolfina Ternberg in the Vreta Kloster parish in Ostergotland Rehnquist is one of two chief justices of Swedish descent the other being Earl Warren who had Norwegian and Swedish ancestry 132 Rehnquist married Natalie Nan Cornell on August 29 1953 The daughter of a San Diego physician she worked as an analyst on the CIA s Austria desk before their marriage 133 The couple had three children James a lawyer and college basketball player Janet a lawyer and Nancy an editor including of her father s books and homemaker 134 135 Nan Rehnquist died on October 17 1991 aged 62 of ovarian cancer 128 Rehnquist was survived by nine grandchildren 136 137 Shortly after moving to Washington D C the Rehnquists purchased a home in Greensboro Vermont where they spent many vacations 138 Books authored editThe Centennial Crisis The Disputed Election of 1876 New York Knopf Publishing Group 2004 ISBN 0 375 41387 1 All the Laws but One Civil Liberties in Wartime New York William Morrow amp Co 1998 ISBN 0 688 05142 1 Grand Inquests The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson New York Knopf Publishing Group 1992 ISBN 0 679 44661 3 The Supreme Court How It Was How It Is New York William Morrow amp Co 1987 ISBN 0 688 05714 4 The Supreme Court A new edition of the Chief Justice s classic history Revised ed New York Knopf Publishing Group 2001 ISBN 0 375 40943 2 See also edit nbsp Biography portal nbsp conservatism portalList of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Seat 9 List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Burger Court List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist CourtReferences edit Dean John February 2002 The Rehnquist Choice Free Press ISBN 978 0 7432 2979 1 Retrieved April 3 2022 a b c Jenkins John A October 2 2012 The Partisan The life of William Rehnquist PublicAffairs pp search flatly denied in Google Books link page numbers are not listed on preview ISBN 978 1 58648 888 8 Retrieved January 3 2022 Herman J Obermayer Rehnquist A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States 2009 Simon and Schuster pp 24 26 Rosen Jeffrey 2005 Rehnquist the Great The Atlantic Archived from the original on May 10 2010 Retrieved May 30 2010 It means in direct translation to English reindeer twig a b Lane Charles 2005 Head of the Class Stanford Magazine No July August Archived from the original on March 16 2008 So for the brainy kid they had called Bugs back home at suburban Shorewood High School just outside Milwaukee weather was a key criterion in selecting a college Illinois General Assembly Full Text of HR0622 www ilga gov Archived from the original on October 16 2016 Retrieved October 16 2016 a b c Christopher L Tomlins 2005 The United States Supreme Court Houghton Mifflin ISBN 978 0 618 32969 4 Retrieved October 21 2008 Volume 04 1951 1952 Jenkins John A October 2 2012 The Partisan The Life of William Rehnquist PublicAffairs pp 16 17 ISBN 978 1 58648 887 1 Retrieved April 23 2022 Biskupic Joan Sandra Day O Connor How the First Woman on the Supreme Court became its most influential justice New York Harper Collins 2005 Totenburg Nina October 31 2018 O Connor Rehnquist And A Supreme Marriage Proposal NPR Archived from the original on October 31 2018 Retrieved October 31 2018 Biskupic Joan September 4 2005 Rehnquist left Supreme Court with conservative legacy USA Today Archived from the original on October 22 2012 Retrieved April 29 2023 William Rehnquist A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases PDF Archived PDF from the original on November 1 2018 Retrieved November 14 2017 S Hrg 99 1067 Hearings Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States July 29 31 and August 1 1986 1971 confirmation hearings citation needed 132 Cong Rec 23548 Speech of Senator Paul Sarbanes PDF Library of Congress 1986 Archived PDF from the original on October 1 2007 Retrieved December 29 2017 Schwartz Bernard 1996 Decision How the Supreme Court Decides Cases OUP USA p 96 ISBN 978 0 19 511800 1 Liptak Adam September 11 2005 The Memo That Rehnquist Wrote and Had to Disown The New York Times Retrieved April 29 2023 Canellos Peter S August 23 2005 Memos may not hold Roberts s opinions Boston com Retrieved February 20 2023 Schwartz Bernard 1988 Chief Justice Rehnquist Justice Jackson and the Brown Case Supreme Court Review 1988 1988 245 267 doi 10 1086 scr 1988 3109626 ISSN 0081 9557 JSTOR 3109626 S2CID 147205671 Kluger Richard 1976 Simple Justice The History ofBrown v Board of Educationand Black America s Struggle for Equality note 4 pp 606 ISBN 978 0 394 47289 8 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location link CS1 maint location missing publisher link a b c d e f g Reagan s Mr Right TIME June 30 1986 Archived from the original on August 9 2021 Retrieved August 9 2021 Snyder Brad Barrett John Q 2012 Rehnquist s Missing Letter A Former Law Clerk s 1955 Thoughts on Justice Jackson and Brown The Boston College Law Review 53 2 631 660 Archived from the original on July 17 2017 Retrieved September 17 2014 Cases where Justice Rehnquist has cited Brown v Board of Education in support of a proposition Archived March 21 2017 at the Wayback Machine S Hrg 99 1067 Hearings Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States July 29 30 31 and August 1 1986 a b Rosen Jeffery April 2005 Rehnquist the Great Atlantic Monthly Archived from the original on January 4 2010 Retrieved March 12 2017 Rehnquist ultimately embraced the Warren Court s Brown decision and after he joined the Court he made no attempt to dismantle the civil rights revolution as political opponents feared he would Terry v Adams 345 U S 461 1953 Findlaw Retrieved April 29 2023 Yarbrough Tinsley E 2000 The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution Oxford University Press p 2 ISBN 978 0 19 535602 1 Mark Silva 2008 McCain The Essential Guide to the Republican Nominee His Character His Career and Where He Stands Triumph Books p 44 ISBN 978 1 60078 196 4 McLellan Dennis October 24 2002 Denison Kitchel 94 Ran Goldwater s Presidential Bid Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on November 6 2013 Retrieved June 2 2013 Gordon David Fall 2001 Before the Storm Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus Archived February 19 2013 at the Wayback Machine Mises Review Roddy Dennis December 2 2000 Just Our Bill Archived May 22 2010 at the Wayback Machine Pittsburgh Post Gazette Wilentz Amy August 11 1986 Through the Wringer Time Archived from the original on October 22 2007 Retrieved February 20 2023 LII US Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist Supct law cornell edu Archived from the original on September 26 2008 Retrieved September 19 2008 Jeffrey Rosen November 4 2001 Renchburg s the One The New York Times Retrieved September 19 2008 a b Dean John February 2002 The Rehnquist Choice Free Press p 5 ISBN 978 0 7432 2979 1 Retrieved June 30 2022 a b Dean John February 2002 The Rehnquist Choice Free Press p 6 ISBN 978 0 7432 2979 1 Retrieved June 30 2022 a b c Dean John February 2002 The Rehnquist Choice Free Press p 7 ISBN 978 0 7432 2979 1 Retrieved June 30 2022 Dean John February 2002 The Rehnquist Choice Free Press p 10 ISBN 978 0 7432 2979 1 Retrieved June 30 2022 Was Rehnquist Deep Throat Thehill com Archived from the original on January 14 2008 Retrieved September 19 2008 Nixon Richard October 21 1971 Address to the Nation Announcing Intention To Nominate Lewis F Powell Jr and William H Rehnquist To Be Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States The American Presidency Project University of California Santa Barbara Archived from the original on March 10 2016 Retrieved October 25 2022 Perlstein Rick 2008 p 605 a b c d e f g McMillion Barry J Rutkus Denis Steven July 6 2018 Supreme Court Nominations 1789 to 2017 Actions by the Senate the Judiciary Committee and the President PDF Washington D C Congressional Research Service Retrieved March 9 2022 a b McMillion Barry J January 28 2022 Supreme Court Nominations 1789 to 2020 Actions by the Senate the Judiciary Committee and the President PDF Report Washington D C Congressional Research Service Retrieved February 19 2022 Barrett John Q Spring 2007 The Federalism Five as Supreme Court Nominees 1971 1991 Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development 21 2 486 Retrieved February 19 2022 via St John s Law Scholarship Repository U S Senate Cloture Motions 92nd Congress www senate gov United States Senate Retrieved March 10 2022 a b Supreme Court Nominations 1789 Present Washington D C United States Senate Retrieved February 19 2022 a b Justices 1789 to Present Washington D C Supreme Court of the United States Retrieved February 19 2022 a b c d Bob Woodward amp Scott Armstrong The Brethren Inside the Supreme Court 1979 Simon and Schuster Page 221 Bob Woodward amp Scott Armstrong The Brethren Inside the Supreme Court 1979 Simon and Schuster Page 222 a b c Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Page 114 A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases PBS Archived from the original on October 16 2016 Retrieved September 18 2017 a b Bob Woodward amp Scott Armstrong The Brethren Inside the Supreme Court 1979 Simon and Schuster Page 411 a b Trimble v Gordon 430 U S 762 1977 Findlaw Retrieved February 20 2023 Bob Woodward amp Scott Armstrong The Brethren Inside the Supreme Court 1979 Simon and Schuster Page 235 Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Page 124 Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Page 122 a b Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Page 113 Von Drehle David July 19 1993 Redefining Fair With a Simple Careful Assault Step by Step Strategy Produced Strides for Equal Protection The Washington Post Archived from the original on February 25 2017 Retrieved September 18 2017 a b c d e Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Page 115 a b c d e f Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Page 116 Friedman Leon The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Volume V Chelsea House Publishers 1978 Pages 116 117 a b c David Garrow The Rehnquist Reins New York Times October 6 1996 Undated 2003 04 Charlie Rose Show interview with Rehnquist Woodward amp Armstrong The Brethren 267 2005 1979 ed at The Brethren 2005 ed at 498 1979 ed at The Bretheren 2005 ed at 268 499 1979 ed at 407 8 Leon Friedman The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions 1978 page 121 a b The Brethren 2005 ed at 268 1979 ed at 222 Jefferson v Hackney 406 U S 535 1972 Justia Law Retrieved February 20 2023 The Brethren 2005 ed at 1979 ed at 222 408 a b The Brethren 2005 ed at 499 Stern Seth Wermiel Stephen 2013 Justice Brennan Liberal Champion University Press of Kansas p 475 ISBN 978 0 7006 1912 2 The Brethren 2005 ed at 1979 ed at 269 Eisler Kim Isaac 1993 A Justice for All William J Brennan Jr and the decisions that transformed America p 272 New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 0 671 76787 9 a b Rutkus Denis Steven Tong Lorraine H Tong March 17 2005 The Chief Justice of the United States Responsibilities of the Office and Process for Appointment Report Washington D C Congressional Research Service Retrieved February 19 2022 via University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department Alan S Oser Unenforceable Covenants are in Many Deeds Archived October 22 2007 at the Wayback Machine New York Times August 1 1986 Mr Rehnquist has said he was unaware of discriminatory restrictions on properties he bought in Arizona and Vermont and officials in those states said today that he had never even been required to sign the deeds that contained the restrictions He told the committee he would act quickly to get rid of the covenants The restriction on the Vermont property prohibits the lease or sale of the property to members of the Hebrew race The discriminatory language appears on the first page of the single spaced document in the middle of a long paragraph filled with unrelated language regarding sewers and the construction of a mailbox a b Kamen Al September 18 1986 Rehnquist Confirmed In 65 33 Senate Vote The Washington Post Retrieved February 19 2022 Taylor Jr Stuart August 1 1986 President Asserts He Will Withhold Rehnquist Memos The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved February 20 2023 Chief justice has presided over only one other trial Deseret News Associated Press January 10 1999 Archived from the original on November 12 2020 Retrieved October 29 2020 Julian D Heislup Sr and Linda L Dixon Appellees v Town of Colonial Beach Virginia Bernard George Denson individually and in Official Capacity As Member of Councilof Town of Colonial Beach Gloria T Fenwick Individuallyand in Official Capacity As Member of Council of Town Ofcolonial Beach Edna C Sydnor Individually and Inofficial Capacity As Member of Council of Town of Colonialbeach Thomas B Rogers Individually and in Officialcapacity As Member of Council of Town of Colonial Beach john A Anderson Individually and in Official Capacity Aschief of Police of Town of Colonial Beach Marty J Perry individually and in Official Capacity As Police Officer Withtown of Colonial Beach and Leroy H Bernard Appellants andjosef W Dunn Individually and in Official Capacity As Townmanager of the Town of Colonial Beach Defendant conrad B Mattox Jr and S Keith Barker Appellants julian D Heislup Sr and Linda L Dixon Appellants v Town of Colonial Beach Virginia Bernard George Denson individually and in His Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach Gloria T Fenwick individually and in Her Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach Edna C Syndor individually and in Her Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach Thomas B Rogers individually and in His Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach John A Anderson individually and in His Official Capacity As Chief of Policeof Town of Colonial Beach Josef W Dunn Individually Andin His Official Capacity As Town Manager of the Town Ofcolonial Beach Marty J Perry Individually and in Hisofficial Capacity As Police Officer with Town of Colonialbeach and Leroy H Bernard Appellees 813 F 2d 401 4th Cir 1986 Justia Law Archived from the original on July 5 2017 Retrieved October 29 2020 Toobin Jeffrey The Nine Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court New York Anchor Books 2007 Barrett John Q 2008 A Rehnquist Ode on the Vinson Court Circa Summer 1953 The Green Bag Rochester NY 11 290 SSRN 1132427 McElroy Lisa Tucker John G Roberts Jr Minneapolis Lerner Publications 2007 Rehnquist s Federalist Legacy Cato org Archived from the original on September 16 2005 Retrieved September 19 2008 Crawford Jan Supreme Conflict The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court 2007 Penguin Books Page 29 Archived copy PDF Archived PDF from the original on February 3 2021 Retrieved June 2 2014 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Greenhouse Linda September 5 2005 William H Rehnquist Architect of Conservative Court Dies at 80 The New York Times Archived from the original on November 14 2017 Retrieved 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Retrieved April 22 2013 Robenalt James January 22 2020 Why Is John Roberts Even in the Impeachment Trial Politico Retrieved December 19 2022 McDonald Forrest June 14 1992 The Senate Was Their Jury The New York Times Retrieved December 29 2022 Rosen Jeffery April 2005 Rehnquist the Great The Atlantic Archived from the original on January 4 2010 Retrieved March 12 2017 Adarand Constructors v Pena 515 U S 200 1995 City of Richmond v J A Croson Co 488 U S 469 1989 Regents of the Univ of Calif v Bakke 438 U S 265 1978 Fried Charles 2004 Saying What the Law Is The Constitution in the Supreme Court pp 46 47 ISBN 978 0 674 01954 6 Greenburg Jan Crawford Supreme Conflict The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court 2007 Penguin Books p 29 Yoo John April 27 2005 He Advocated Limitations of Public Power Philadelphia Inquirer Archived from the original on April 28 2005 Retrieved October 27 2008 a b Mauro Tony January 4 2007 Rehnquist FBI File Sheds New Light on Drug Dependence Confirmation Battles Legal Times Retrieved February 20 2023 a b FBI releases Rehnquist drug problem records NBC News Press release Associated Press August 8 2020 Retrieved February 20 2023 Cooperman Alan January 5 2007 Sedative Withdrawal Made Rehnquist Delusional in 81 The Washington Post p A01 Archived from the original on November 6 2012 Retrieved March 15 2008 Shafer Jack September 9 2005 Rehnquist s Drug Habit Slate ISSN 1091 2339 Retrieved February 20 2023 Dorf Michael C The Big News in the Rehnquist FBI File There Is None FindLaw Retrieved February 20 2023 Altman Lawrence November 26 2004 Prognosis for Rehnquist Depends on Which Type of Thyroid Cancer He Has The New York Times Archived from the original on November 17 2017 Retrieved November 16 2017 Nina Totenberg Ailing Rehnquist Administers Oath of Office NPR Archived from the original on January 11 2009 Retrieved September 19 2008 Online NewsHour Rehnquist Returns to Bench as Supreme Court Reviews Restraining Order Case March 21 2005 Pbs org Archived from the original on August 11 2010 Retrieved September 19 2008 Chief Justice Rehnquist Returns to Court Fox News March 21 2005 Archived from the original on July 18 2008 Retrieved September 19 2008 D C Wonders When Rehnquist Will Go Fox News July 10 2005 Archived from the original on March 12 2007 Retrieved February 20 2023 Chapman Roger Ciment James 2015 Culture Wars An Encyclopedia of Issues Viewpoints and Voices Routledge ISBN 978 1 317 47351 0 Ward Artemus Brough Christopher Arnold Robert 2015 Historical Dictionary of the U S Supreme Court Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 0 8108 7521 0 Archived from the original on February 8 2020 Retrieved November 20 2017 Richard W Stevenson David Stout September 6 2005 Roberts Hearing Set for Monday Rehnquist s Coffin Lies in Court The New York Times Archived from the original on April 17 2009 Retrieved September 19 2008 Lane Charles September 8 2005 Rehnquist Eulogies Look Beyond Bench The Washington Post Archived from the original on March 4 2016 Retrieved July 3 2010 Weil Martin Jackman Tom September 5 2005 Funeral Set for Wednesday At St Matthew s Cathedral The Washington Post Archived from the original on November 6 2012 Retrieved September 19 2008 a b William Rehnquist www arlingtoncemetery mil Retrieved February 20 2023 Christensen George A Journal of Supreme Court History Volume 33 Issue 1 pp 17 41 February 19 2008 Here Lies the Supreme Court Revisited University of Alabama Adam Liptak And Todd S Purdum July 31 2005 As Clerk for Rehnquist Nominee Stood Out for Conservative Rigor The New York Times Archived from the original on October 15 2008 Retrieved September 19 2008 Roberts John G November 2005 In Memoriam William H Rehnquist PDF Harvard Law Review 119 1 1 ISSN 0017 811X Archived PDF from the original on May 8 2013 Retrieved November 14 2017 Speech Chief Justice William H Rehnquist supremecourt gov April 9 2001 Archived from the original on July 23 2011 Retrieved September 19 2008 Obermayer at p xvi Obermayer at p xv Lane Charles September 6 2005 Emotion Overcomes Sober Court The Washington Post Archived from the original on November 10 2012 Retrieved May 28 2010 Totenberg Nina September 8 2005 Family Peers Pay Respects to Rehnquist NPR org National Public Radio Archived from the original on January 15 2012 Retrieved May 28 2010 Levine Susan and Charles Lane September 7 2005 For Chief Justice A Final Session With His Court The Washington Post Archived from the original on June 4 2012 Retrieved May 28 2010 Obermayer pp 56 58Further reading editAbraham Henry J 1992 Justices and Presidents A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court 3rd ed New York Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 506557 3 Cushman Clare 2001 The Supreme Court Justices Illustrated Biographies 1789 1995 2nd ed Supreme Court Historical Society Congressional Quarterly Books ISBN 1 56802 126 7 Frank John P 1995 Friedman Leon Israel Fred L eds The Justices of the United States Supreme Court Their Lives and Major Opinions Chelsea House Publishers ISBN 0 7910 1377 4 Hudson David L 2006 The Rehnquist Court Understanding Its Impact and Legacy New York raeger Publishers ISBN 0 275 98971 2 Hall Kermit L ed 1992 The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States New York Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 505835 6 Martin Fenton S Goehlert Robert U 1990 The U S Supreme Court A Bibliography Washington D C Congressional Quarterly Books ISBN 0 87187 554 3 Obermayer Herman 2009 Rehnquist A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States New York Threshold Editions ISBN 978 1 4391 4082 6 Perlstein Rick 2009 Nixonland The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America Scribner ISBN 978 0 7432 4303 2 Schwartz Herman 2003 The Rehnquist Court Judicial Activism on the Right New Hork Hill and Wang ISBN 0 8090 8074 5 Tushnet Mark 2005 A Court Divided The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law New York W W Norton Co ISBN 0 393 05868 9 Urofsky Melvin I 1994 The Supreme Court Justices A Biographical Dictionary New York Garland Publishing p 590 ISBN 0 8153 1176 1 Woodward Robert Armstrong Scott 1979 The Brethren Inside the Supreme Court New York Avon Books ISBN 0 671 24110 9 External links editWilliam Rehnquist at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Media from Commons nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Texts from Wikisource William Hubbs Rehnquist at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges a publication of the Federal Judicial Center William Rehnquist at Ballotpedia Issue positions and quotes at OnTheIssues Appearances on C SPAN Booknotes interview with David Savage on Turning Right The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court June 28 1992 Booknotes interview with Rehnquist on Grand Inquests The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson July 5 1992 Profile at Answers com In Memoriam William H Rehnquist 119 Harvard Law Review 2005 tributes to Rehnquist Original source William Rehnquist FBI file 1986 Senate confirmation hearing William Rehnquist s FBI files hosted at the Internet Archive Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Supreme Court Associate Justice Nomination Hearings on William Hubbs Rehnquist in November 1971 United States Government Publishing Office Supreme Court Chief Justice Nomination Hearings on William Hubbs Rehnquist in July 1986 United States Government Publishing OfficeOpinions edit Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist s Key Decisions The Washington Post The Legacy of William H Rehnquist Majority and Dissenting Opinions in Major Supreme Court Cases Archived October 28 2005 at the Wayback MachineLegal officesPreceded byJohn Harlan Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States1972 1986 Succeeded byAntonin ScaliaPreceded byWarren Burger Chief Justice of the United States1986 2005 Succeeded byJohn Roberts Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title William Rehnquist amp oldid 1197636765, wikipedia, wiki, book, 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