102-561: Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 16th chief justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005, having previously been an associate justice from 1972 to 1986. Considered
204-473: A Bachelor of Laws . 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, 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). Rehnquist married Nan Cornell in 1953. After law school, Rehnquist served as
306-539: A law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson from 1952 to 1953. 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
408-713: A Republican Party voter suppression operation in the early 1960s in Arizona to challenge minority voters. 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." When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 , Rehnquist returned to work in Washington. He served as Assistant Attorney General of
510-527: A civil remedy to be directed at a state or a state actor, not a private party. The Court stated that such precedents prohibit only action by state governments, not private conduct. In other words, the unequal enforcement of state laws caused by inaction is, by that interpretation, beyond the scope of the federal government's enforcement of the Equal Protection Clause. The majority reaffirmed the state action doctrine and specifically reaffirmed
612-553: A federal law extending minimum wage and maximum hours provisions to state and local government employees. Rehnquist wrote, "this exercise of congressional authority does not comport with the federal system of government embodied in the Constitution." Rehnquist rejected a broad view of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1952, while clerking for Jackson, Rehnquist wrote a memorandum concluding that " Plessy v. Ferguson
714-541: 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. He was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. After leaving the military in 1946, Rehnquist attended Stanford University with financial assistance from
816-461: A justice's tenure ends only when the justice dies, retires, resigns, or is removed from office through the impeachment process. Since 1789, 15 presidents have made a total of 22 official nominations to the position. The salary of the chief justice is set by Congress; as of 2024, the annual salary is $ 312,200, which is slightly higher than that of associate justices, which is $ 298,500. The practice of appointing an individual to serve as Chief Justice
918-457: 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. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Sweden . Rehnquist graduated from Shorewood High School in 1942, during which time he changed his middle name to Hubbs. He attended Kenyon College , in Gambier, Ohio , for one quarter in
1020-535: A memo arguing that an investigation would not violate the separation of powers . 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." The worst inference Rehnquist could draw was that Fortas had somehow intervened in the prosecution of Wolfson, which, according to former White House Counsel John W. Dean,
1122-451: A memorandum to Jackson about Terry v. Adams , 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 attain success in the effort. It is about time the Court faced the fact that
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#17327722074741224-575: A restrictive view of criminals' and prisoners' rights and believed capital punishment to be constitutional. He supported the view that the Fourth Amendment permitted a warrantless search incident to a valid arrest. 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. He dissented solely on
1326-740: 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 . 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
1428-573: A substantial effect on interstate commerce if, when aggregated, such acts had the required relation to interstate commerce. Once again, relying on Lopez , the majority replied that the aggregation principle of Wickard did not apply because economic effects of crimes against women were indirect and so they could not be addressed through the Commerce Clause. The Court explained that the need to distinguish between economic activities that directly and those that indirectly affect interstate commerce
1530-553: Is by tradition administered by the chief justice. The chief justice serves as a spokesperson for the federal government's judicial branch and acts as a chief administrative officer for the federal courts. The chief justice presides over the Judicial Conference and, in that capacity, appoints the director and deputy director of the Administrative Office . The chief justice is an ex officio member of
1632-533: Is directed not at a State or state actor but at individuals who have committed criminal acts motivated by gender bias." The Court agreed with the government that there was a "voluminous congressional record" supporting the "assertion that there is pervasive bias in various state justice systems against victims of gender-motivated violence." The Court also agreed with the government that "state-sponsored gender discrimination violates equal protection unless it serves important governmental objectives...." However, according to
1734-419: Is found in a 2012 Boston College Law Review article that analyzes a 1955 letter to Frankfurter that criticized Jackson. 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. 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. In
1836-429: Is grounded in tradition; while the Constitution mandates that there be a chief justice, it is silent on the subject of how one is chosen and by whom. There is no specific constitutional prohibition against using another method to select the chief justice from among those justices properly appointed and confirmed to the Supreme Court. Three incumbent associate justices have been nominated by the president and confirmed by
1938-436: Is not a constitutional responsibility of the chief justice. The Constitution does not require that the presidential oath be administered by anyone in particular, simply that it be taken by the president. Law empowers any federal or state judge, as well as notaries public , to administer oaths and affirmations . The chief justice ordinarily administers the oath of office to newly appointed and confirmed associate justices, whereas
2040-609: The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the decision 2–1. The Fourth Circuit reheard the case en banc and reversed the panel, upholding the district court. The Court's 5–4 decision invalidated the section of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 that gave victims of gender-motivated violence the right to sue their attackers in federal court. Chief Justice Rehnquist , writing for
2142-538: The Equal Protection Clause in cases like Trimble v. Gordon : 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
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#17327722074742244-643: The Fourteenth Amendment 's Equal Protection Clause . Along with United States v. Lopez (1995), it was part of a series of Rehnquist Court cases that limited Congress's powers under the Commerce Clause. The case arose from a challenge to a provision of the Violence Against Women Act that provided victims of gender-motivated violence the right to sue their attackers in federal court. In a majority opinion joined by four other justices, Chief Justice William Rehnquist held that
2346-708: The G.I. Bill . 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 . Rehnquist was strongly conservative from an early age and wrote that he "hated" liberal Justice Hugo Black in his diary at Stanford. He graduated in 1952 ranked first in his class with
2448-545: The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 was unconstitutional. As in Morrison , the Court had stressed "enumerated powers" that limit federal power to maintain "a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local." Therefore, Lopez limited the scope of the Commerce Clause to exclude activity that was not directly economic in nature, even if there were indirect economic consequences. Lopez
2550-532: The Office of Legal Counsel from 1969 to 1971. 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. Rehnquist played a role in the investigation of Justice Abe Fortas for accepting $ 20,000 from Louis Wolfson , a financier under investigation by
2652-413: 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. 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
2754-815: The Rehnquist Court , earning respect even from the justices who frequently opposed his opinions. 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 dissented in 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
2856-512: The Securities and Exchange Commission . 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. Nixon wanted the Justice Department to investigate Fortas but was unsure if this was legal, as there was no precedent for such an activity. Rehnquist sent Attorney General John N. Mitchell
2958-537: The Senate Judiciary Committee took place in early November 1971. 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 . On November 23, 1971, the committee voted 12–4 to send the nomination to
3060-703: The Seventeenth Amendment "are not rips in the fabric of the Framers' Constitution, inviting judicial repairs," and amendments affecting states' rights like the Seventeenth Amendment "did not convert the judiciary into an alternate shield against the commerce power." Morrison , like Boerne , Kimel , and Garrett , was one of a series of Rehnquist Court decisions from 1999 through 2001 holding that Congress's enumerated powers do not permit various federal civil rights laws. Morrison
3162-455: The judicial oath of office on January 7, 1972. 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 . 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
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3264-700: The president of the United States to nominate, and, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate , appoint "Judges of the supreme Court", who serve until they die, resign, retire, or are impeached and convicted . The existence of a chief justice is only explicit in Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 which states that the chief justice shall preside over the impeachment trial of the president; this has occurred three times, for Andrew Johnson , Bill Clinton , and for Donald Trump ’s first impeachment. The chief justice has significant influence in
3366-424: The selection of cases for review , presides when oral arguments are held, and leads the discussion of cases among the justices. Additionally, when the court renders an opinion, the chief justice, if in the majority, chooses who writes the court's opinion; however, when deciding a case, the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice . While nowhere mandated, the presidential oath of office
3468-466: 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." But he acknowledged defending Plessy in arguments with fellow law clerks. Several commentators have concluded that the memo reflected Rehnquist's own views, not Jackson's. A biography of Jackson corroborates this, stating that Jackson instructed his clerks to express their views, not his. Further corroboration
3570-709: The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and, by custom, is elected chancellor of the board. Since the Supreme Court was established in 1789, 17 people have served as Chief Justice, beginning with John Jay (1789–1795). The current chief justice is John Roberts (since 2005). Five of the 17 chief justices— John Rutledge , Edward Douglass White , Charles Evans Hughes , Harlan Fiske Stone , and William Rehnquist —served as associate justices prior to becoming chief justice. One chief Justice – William Howard Taft – had previously served as President of
3672-401: The Commerce Clause gave Congress only the power to regulate activities that were directly economic in nature, even if there were indirect economic consequences. Rehnquist also held that the Equal Protection Clause did not authorize the law because the clause applies only to acts by states, not to acts by private individuals. In his dissenting opinion, Associate Justice David Souter argued that
3774-478: The Commerce Clause: "The price of upholding VAWA's civil rights remedy is an unconstitutional grant of unlimited power to Congress, power that will not always be used wisely or with regard to individual rights. We need to combat sexual violence without making a federal case of it." Professor Catharine MacKinnon criticized Morrison for relying on "implicitly patriarchal" legal reasoning. She argued that
3876-501: The Court analyzed its validity under the third in Morrison . The majority concluded that acts of violence that were meant to be remedied by VAWA had only an "attenuated," not a substantial, effect on interstate commerce. The government, however, argued that "a mountain of evidence" indicated that such acts in the aggregate had a substantial effect. For that proposition the government relied on Wickard v. Filburn (1942), which held that Congress could regulate an individual act that lacked
3978-680: The Court decided in the Civil Rights Cases , it exceeded congressional enforcement power under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In Harris , the Court ruled that the Clause did not apply to a prison lynching since the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to private actors, only state actors. In that case, a sheriff, a state actor, had tried to prevent the lynching. Morrison stated that "assuming that there has been gender-based disparate treatment by state authorities in this case, it would not be enough to save § 13981's civil remedy, which
4080-537: The Court had called that Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment "a positive grant of legislative power authorizing Congress to exercise its discretion in determining the need for and nature of legislation to secure Fourteenth Amendment guarantees." In Morrison , the Court, as it had in Boerne , again distinguished Morgan on the ground that Morgan had involved federal legislation "directed at New York officials," instead of private parties. The Court also noted that unlike
4182-497: The Equal Protection Clause's ban on governmental gender discrimination. Specially, the government argued that pervasive gender stereotypes and assumptions permeated state justice systems and that such forms of state bias led to "insufficient investigation and prosecution of gender-motivated crime, inappropriate focus on the behavior and credibility of the victims of that crime, and unacceptably lenient punishments for those who are actually convicted of gender-motivated violence." That bias,
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4284-467: The Fourteenth Amendment did not allow Congress to target private parties to remedy the unequal enforcement of state laws. To support that interpretation of the Civil Rights Cases , the Court quoted one of the Congressmen who had supported the law that the Civil Rights Cases struck down: "There were state laws on the books bespeaking equality of treatment, but in the administration of these laws there
4386-520: The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy . Under 28 U.S.C. § 3 , when the chief justice is unable to discharge their functions, or when that office is vacant, the chief justice's duties are carried out by the most senior associate justice until the disability or vacancy ends. Currently, Clarence Thomas is the most senior associate justice. Since
4488-460: The Senate as Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White in 1910, Harlan Fiske Stone in 1941, and William Rehnquist in 1986. A fourth, Abe Fortas , was nominated to the position in 1968 but was not confirmed. As an associate justice does not have to resign their seat on the court in order to be nominated as Chief Justice, Fortas remained an associate justice. Similarly, when Associate Justice William Cushing
4590-414: The Supreme Court in order to control the Court's agenda through opinion assignment. Indeed, Burger is said to have often changed votes to join the majority coalition, cast "phony votes" by voting against his preferred position, and declined to express a position at conference. The chief justice has traditionally administered the presidential oath of office to new U.S. presidents. This is merely custom, and
4692-459: The Supreme Court was established in 1789, the following 17 men have served as Chief Justice: United States v. Morrison United States v. Morrison , 529 U.S. 598 (2000), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that parts of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 were unconstitutional because they exceeded the powers granted to the US Congress under the Commerce Clause and
4794-473: The Supreme Court, refers to all members of the court simply as "judges". The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the distinctive titles of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States . In 1866, Salmon P. Chase assumed the title of Chief Justice of the United States, and Congress began using the new title in subsequent legislation. The first person whose Supreme Court commission contained
4896-454: The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the chief justice shall preside over the Senate trial of an impeached president of the United States. Three chief justices have presided over presidential impeachment trials : Salmon P. Chase ( 1868 trial of Andrew Johnson ), William Rehnquist ( 1999 trial of Bill Clinton ), and John Roberts ( 2020 trial of Donald Trump ; Roberts declined to preside over Trump's second trial in 2021 , which took place after
4998-532: The United States . The United States Constitution does not explicitly establish an office of the Chief Justice but presupposes its existence with a single reference in Article I, Section 3, Clause 6: "When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside." Nothing more is said in the Constitution regarding the office. Article III, Section 1 , which authorizes the establishment of
5100-512: The United States or of any state while holding their congressional seats, the chief justice and the other members of the federal judiciary are not barred from serving in other positions. John Jay served as a diplomat to negotiate the Jay Treaty , Robert H. Jackson was appointed by President Truman to be the U.S. prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials of leading Nazis, and Earl Warren chaired
5202-656: The VAWA, the legislation in Morgan "was directed only to the State where the evil found by Congress existed." Justice Souter, joined by Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, and Breyer, argued that enacting VAWA was well within Congress's power under the Commerce Clause and stated that the majority revived an old and discredited interpretation of the Commerce Clause. Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg, argued that it
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#17327722074745304-402: The agenda for the weekly meetings where the justices review the petitions for certiorari , to decide whether to hear or deny each case. The Supreme Court agrees to hear less than one percent of the cases petitioned to it. While associate justices may append items to the weekly agenda, in practice this initial agenda-setting power of the chief justice has significant influence over the direction of
5406-553: The area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply—classifications based on race or on national origin". During the Burger Court's deliberations over Roe v. Wade , Rehnquist promoted his view that courts' jurisdiction does not apply to abortion . 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
5508-400: 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. Rehnquist consistently defended state-sanctioned prayer in public schools . He held
5610-409: The boundaries between the spheres of federal and State authority would blur." The majority further stated that "it is difficult to perceive any limitation on federal power, even in areas such as criminal law enforcement or education where States historically have been sovereign." Justice Thomas's concurring opinion also expressed the concern that "Congress [was] appropriating State police powers under
5712-567: 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. Nevertheless, Rehnquist recommended to Jackson that the Supreme Court should agree to hear Terry . 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
5814-483: The conferences where cases are discussed and tentatively voted on by the justices. They normally speak first and so have influence in framing the discussion. Although the chief justice votes first—the court votes in order of seniority—they may strategically pass in order to ensure membership in the majority if desired. It is reported that: Chief Justice Warren Burger was renowned, and even vilified in some quarters, for voting strategically during conference discussions on
5916-466: The court's procedures and inner workings are governed by the rules of protocol based on the seniority of the justices. The chief justice always ranks first in the order of precedence —regardless of the length of the officeholder's service (even if shorter than that of one or more associate justices). This elevated status has enabled successive chief justices to define and refine both the court's culture and its judicial priorities. The chief justice sets
6018-650: The court's majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election . Rehnquist was born William Donald Rehnquist on October 1, 1924, and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood . He was coincidentally born on the same day as the 39th president, Jimmy Carter . 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
6120-459: The court's national prestige. In doing so, Marshall would often write the opinions himself and actively discouraged dissenting opinions. Associate Justice William Johnson eventually persuaded Marshall and the rest of the court to adopt its present practice: one justice writes an opinion for the majority, and the rest are free to write their own separate opinions or not, whether concurring or dissenting. The chief justice's formal prerogative—when in
6222-520: The court. In 1930, former Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes was confirmed as Chief Justice. Additionally, in December 1800, former Chief Justice John Jay was nominated and confirmed to the position a second time but ultimately declined it, opening the way for the appointment of John Marshall . Along with their general responsibilities as a member of the Supreme Court, the chief justice has several unique duties to fulfill. Article I, Section 3 of
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#17327722074746324-465: The court. Nonetheless, a chief justice's influence may be limited by circumstances and the associate justices' understanding of legal principles ; it is definitely limited by the fact that they have only a single vote of nine on the decision whether to grant or deny certiorari. Despite the chief justice's elevated stature, their vote carries the same legal weight as the vote of each associate justice. Additionally, they have no legal authority to overrule
6426-480: The decision reflected an attitude, pervasive in the American judicial system, of violence against women being a "domestic" issue and therefore less serious than "male issues." Professor Peter M. Shane said that the attorneys general of 36 states had endorsed the VAWA, and he argued that the endorsement "exposes one of the more bizarre aspects of the Supreme Court's recent activism on behalf of state sovereignty: From
6528-570: The distinction between what is national and what is local and create a completely centralized government. The Court also held that Congress lacked the power to enact VAWA under the Fourteenth Amendment. It relied on the "state action" doctrine, which originated in United States v. Harris (1883) and the Civil Rights Cases (1883), and provides that the prohibitions of the Fourteenth Amendment do not constrain private individuals. The U.S. government argued that VAWA appropriately enforced
6630-548: The early 1960s on the grounds of freedom of association . 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 fifth-longest-serving chief justice and the eighth-longest-serving justice overall. He became an intellectual and social leader of
6732-507: The end of Trump's presidency. Senate president pro-tempore Patrick Leahy presided). All three presidents were acquitted in the Senate. Although the Constitution is silent on the matter, the chief justice would, under Senate rules adopted in 1999 prior to the Clinton trial, preside over the trial of an impeached vice president. This rule was established to preclude the possibility of a vice president presiding over their own trial. Many of
6834-572: 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
6936-732: 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. During these years, Rehnquist was active in the Republican Party and served as a legal advisor under Kitchel to Goldwater's campaign. He collaborated with Harry Jaffa on Goldwater's speeches. 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 ,
7038-426: The full Senate with a favorable recommendation. 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. The Senate then voted 22–70 to reject a motion to postpone consideration of his confirmation until July 18, 1972. Later that day, the Senate voted 68–26 to confirm Rehnquist, and he took
7140-523: The government argued, deprived women of the equal protection of the laws, and the private civil remedy of VAWA was meant to redress "both the States' bias and deter future instances of gender discrimination in the state courts." The Court responded that even if there had been gender-based disparate treatment by state authorities in that case, precedents such as the Civil Rights Cases limit the manner in which Congress may remedy discrimination, and they require
7242-540: The ground that the law was "a clear violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers". Chief justice of the United States The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and is the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary . Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants plenary power to
7344-477: The guise of regulating commerce." The majority, quoting from NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937), stated that the scope of the interstate commerce power must be considered in the light of our dual system of government and may not be extended so as to embrace effects upon interstate commerce so indirect and remote that to embrace them, in view of our complex society, would effectually obliterate
7446-548: The majority revived an old and discredited interpretation of the Commerce Clause. In 1994, the United States Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act , which contained a provision at 42 U.S.C. § 13981 for a federal civil remedy to victims of gender-based violence even if no criminal charges had been filed against the alleged perpetrator of that violence. That fall, at Virginia Tech , freshman student, Christy Brzonkala, alleged that she
7548-412: The majority stated, Congress was required to adhere to the Court's interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, including the Court's interpretation of the state-action doctrine. The "congruence and proportionality" requirement of Boerne did not allow Congress to exceed the Court's interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although it had been widely believed that Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment
7650-432: The majority, even if there is unconstitutional state action, Congress is justified in targeting only state actors, rather than private parties. The government's argument was that VAWA had been enacted in response to "gender-based disparate treatment by state authorities." In contrast there was "no indication of such state action" in the Civil Rights Cases . According to the Court, however, the Civil Rights Cases held that
7752-518: The majority, held that Congress lacked authority, under either the Commerce Clause or the Fourteenth Amendment , to enact that provision. However, the Act's program funding remained unaffected. The majority opinion was that VAWA exceeded congressional power under the Commerce Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. With regard to the Commerce Clause, the majority said that the result was controlled by United States v. Lopez (1995), which had held that
7854-414: The majority—to assign which justice will write the court's opinion is perhaps their most influential power, as this enables them to influence the historical record. They may assign this task to the individual justice best able to hold together a fragile coalition, to an ideologically amenable colleague, or to themselves. Opinion authors can have a large influence on the content of an opinion; two justices in
7956-441: 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
8058-495: The modified title was Melville Fuller in 1888. The associate justice title was not altered in 1866 and remains as originally created. The chief justice, like all federal judges , is nominated by the president and confirmed to office by the U.S. Senate . Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution specifies that they "shall hold their Offices during good Behavior." This language has been interpreted to mean that judicial appointments are effectively for life and that once in office,
8160-458: The prosecution in criminal cases, with business in antitrust cases, with employers in labor cases, and with the government in speech cases." Rehnquist was often a lone dissenter in cases early on, but his views later often became the Court's majority view. For years, Rehnquist was determined to keep cases involving individual rights in state courts out of federal reach. In National League of Cities v. Usery (1977), his majority opinion invalidated
8262-512: The results reached in United States v. Harris (1883) and the Civil Rights Cases (1883), both of which were decided 15 years after the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification in 1868. In the Civil Rights Cases , the Court had held that the Equal Protection Clause applied only to acts done by states, not to acts done by private individuals. Because the Civil Rights Act of 1875 applied to racial discrimination in private establishments,
8364-436: The same majority, given the opportunity, might write very different majority opinions. A chief justice who knows the associate justices well can therefore do much—by the simple act of selecting the justice who writes the opinion of the court—to affect the general character or tone of an opinion, which in turn can affect the interpretation of that opinion in cases before lower courts in the years to come. The chief justice chairs
8466-597: The seniormost associate justice will normally swear in a new chief justice. If the chief justice is ill or incapacitated, the oath is usually administered by the seniormost member of the Supreme Court. Eight times, someone other than the chief justice of the United States administered the oath of office to the president. Since the tenure of William Howard Taft , the office of chief justice has moved beyond just first among equals . The chief justice also: Unlike Senators and Representatives, who are constitutionally prohibited from holding any other "office of trust or profit" of
8568-426: The verdicts or interpretations of the other eight judges or tamper with them. The task of assigning who shall write the opinion for the majority falls to the most senior justice in the majority. Thus, when the chief justice is in the majority, they always assign the opinion. Early in his tenure, Chief Justice John Marshall insisted upon holdings which the justices could unanimously back as a means to establish and build
8670-442: 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. In another memorandum to Jackson about the same case, Rehnquist wrote: several of the [Yale law professor Fred] Rodell school of thought among
8772-514: Was Deep Throat , this speculation ended. On October 21, 1971, President Nixon nominated Rehnquist as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed John Marshall Harlan II . 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", referring to then-presidential advisor Patrick Buchanan . Rehnquist's confirmation hearings before
8874-445: 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." But Justices Douglas 's and Frankfurter 's papers indicate that Jackson voted for Brown in 1954 only after changing his mind. At his 1986 hearing for chief justice, Rehnquist tried to further distance himself from
8976-445: Was a "one-way ratchet" and a minimum standard, the Court's interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause, that interpretation had been rejected by the Court in Boerne to prevent what the Court described as "a considerable congressional intrusion into the States' traditional prerogatives and general authority." The belief that section five was a "one-way ratchet" had been based on Katzenbach v. Morgan , 384 U.S. 641 (1966), in which
9078-577: Was also seen by the press as one of the Rehnquist Court's series of federalism decisions, mainly because of the Court's previous decisions in Lopez and other cases. The Washington Post came out in favor of Morrison : "The court got it right. If Congress could federalize rape and assault, it's hard to think of anything it couldn't." The lawyer and writer Wendy Kaminer agreed with the courts that Congress had overstepped its bounds by invoking
9180-441: 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
9282-424: Was assaulted and raped repeatedly by students Antonio Morrison and James Crawford. Brzonkala initially stated that she visited Morrison and Crawford in their dormitory and they assaulted her, but later claimed that she was assaulted in her dormitory, and had never met the students until that day. During the school-conducted hearing on her complaint, Morrison admitted having sexual contact with her, but claimed that it
9384-479: Was caused by "the concern that we expressed in Lopez that Congress might use the Commerce Clause to completely obliterate the Constitution's distinction between national and local authority." Referring to Lopez , the Court stated, "Were the Federal Government to take over the regulation of entire areas of traditional State concern, areas having nothing to do with the regulation of commercial activities,
9486-581: Was consensual. College proceedings failed to punish Crawford who produced an alibi witness, but initially punished Morrison with a suspension (which was later struck down by the administration). A state grand jury did not find sufficient evidence to charge either man with a crime. Brzonkala then filed suit under the Violence Against Women Act. The United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia held that Congress lacked authority to enact 42 U.S.C. § 13981. A three-judge panel of
9588-510: 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. Historians debate whether he committed perjury during the hearings by denying his suppression efforts despite at least ten witnesses to the acts, but it is known that at the very least he had defended segregation by private businesses in
9690-504: Was discrimination against newly freed slaves." To the majority, that quote indicated that the law deemed unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases was meant to combat the same kind of disparate treatment against which VAWA was aimed. The majority continued that even if the government's distinction between Morrison and the Civil Rights Cases was valid, the VAWA remained unconstitutionally aimed not at state actors but at private criminal conduct. Under City of Boerne v. Flores (1997),
9792-462: Was nominated and confirmed as Chief Justice in January 1796 but declined the office, he too remained on the court. Two former associate justices subsequently returned to service on the court as Chief Justice. John Rutledge was the first. President Washington gave him a recess appointment in 1795. However, his subsequent nomination to the office was not confirmed by the Senate, and he left office and
9894-541: Was not to be applied to abortion rights or prisoner's rights. He believed the Court "had no business reflecting society's changing and expanding values" and that this was Congress's domain. Rehnquist tried to weave his view of the Amendment into his opinion for Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer , but the other justices rejected it. He later extended what he said he saw as the Amendment's scope, writing in Trimble v. Gordon , "except in
9996-414: Was primarily the responsibility of Congress, not the courts, to put limits on Congress's power under the Commerce Clause. Joined by Justice Stevens, Justice Breyer contended that Congress had been sensitive to concerns of federalism in enacting VAWA, and he expressed doubts about the majority's pronouncements on the Fourteenth Amendment. According to the four dissenting justices, the Fourteenth Amendment and
10098-400: 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." Rehnquist believed the Fourteenth Amendment was meant only as a solution to the problems of slavery, and
10200-504: Was right and should be reaffirmed. 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." Jackson's longtime secretary and confidante Elsie Douglas said during Rehnquist's 1986 hearings that his allegation
10302-413: Was the first significant limitation on the Commerce Clause powers of Congress in 53 years. The Lopez court stated that Congress may regulate the use of the channels of interstate commerce, the "instrumentalities" (such as vehicles) used in interstate commerce, and activities that substantially affect interstate commerce. Because VAWA's civil remedy concededly did not regulate the first or second categories,
10404-512: Was untrue. Based on this false accusation, Rehnquist argued that the Justice Department could investigate Fortas. After being investigated by Mitchell, who threatened to also investigate his wife, Fortas resigned. 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 . Once Bob Woodward revealed on May 31, 2005, that W. Mark Felt
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