Rehnquist, William 1924-

William Rehnquist 1924-

Chief justice, u.s. supreme court

Background

William Hubbs Rehnquist was born on 1 October 1924 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After leaving the military he attended Stanford University where he received a B.A. in political science, and earned master's degrees in political science from both Stanford (1948) and Harvard (1950), before attending Stanford Law School. He graduated first in his class in 1952 with an LL.B. and was awarded the Order of the Coif. Rehnquist then served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. During his tenure as a clerk, he drafted a memo for Justice Jackson that stated racial segregation in education was "right and should be affirmed." Following the clerkship, Rehnquist practiced law in Phoenix, Arizona. He then served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Affairs in the Department of Justice. In 1971 President Richard M. Nixon nominated Rehnquist to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court, filling the seat vacated by Justice John Marshall Harlan. He served as an associate justice on the bench until 1986 when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to replace retiring Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger. Rehnquist is the sixteenth Chief Justice.

Conservative Court

During the 1990s the Supreme Court made noticeable moves to limit civil rights. Under the guidance of Rehnquist the Court restricted habeas corpus review, allowed greater scope for law enforcement agencies to conduct searches and administer drug tests without an individual's consent, and allowed states to admit evidence that under previous Courts was excluded. The Rehnquist Court has also narrowed personal privacy rights, such as abortion and homosexual rights. While not overturning the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, the Court increasingly allowed states to impose stricter regulations on abortion. The Court also refused to extend specific protections for homosexuals. Finally, it struck down affirmative action programs that used quotas. In general, the Court followed Rehnquist's position of mitigated judicial restraint. Ideologically, the Chief Justice consistently held that courts have the responsibility of extending the Constitution to cases that the framers might not have foreseen. Thus, the First Amendment protection of speech can be applied to modern communication technology, such as the Internet. On the other hand, Rehnquist rejected the more permissive reading of the constitution that permits courts to impose their own views in order to expand rights and liberties, such as with affirmative action.

Impeachment Trial

Following the constitutional requirements, on 7 January 1999 Chief Justice Rehnquist took an oath to do "impartial justice" during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton and then administered the oath to the senators who acted as jurors in the case. Rehnquist has the distinction of serving as the second Chief Justice in U.S. history to preside over an impeachment trial of a president and the first to conduct such proceedings before television cameras. Unlike at the Supreme Court where justices question attorneys and cast a vote, as presiding officer over the impeachment trial, Rehnquist's duties were more limited, primarily to rule on questions involving evidence. A simple majority of senators, however, could overrule Rehnquist's decisions. While the Senators were required to remain silent during the proceedings, they were allowed to submit questions to Rehnquist, who would relay them to the House prosecutors. Rehnquist did not have the authority to question the House managers. By almost all accounts, Rehnquist conducted the trial in a courteous and impartial manner. He was well acquainted with the impeachment process; his Grand Inquests: The Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson (1992) detailed two impeachment trials that took place in the Senate, one of Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in 1804, and the other of President Andrew Johnson, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era (1868). Grand Inquest became so popular during the Clinton proceedings that the publisher reissued the book.

Source:

D. F. B. Tucker, The Rehnquist Court and Civil Rights (Aldershot, U.K. & Brookfield, N.H.: Dartmouth, 1995).