William Hubbs Rehnquist (1 October 1924 - 3 September 2005) served on the United States Supreme Court from 1972 until his death. He served as an Associate Justice from 1972 until 1986, and as Chief Justice after that. After his death, he was replaced by John Roberts. He was widely considered one of the most conservative justices on the Court, and particularly known for a strong interpretation of states' rights. He construed federal power narrowly, voting against expansions of federally-led school desegregation, dissenting on the famous Roe v. Wade decision, and voting to permit school prayer and capital punishment.
Biography
He was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. His father, William Benjamin Rehnquist, sold paper, and his mother, Margery Peck Rehnquist, worked as a translator. He graduated from high school in 1942 and attended Kenyon College for only a term before enlisting in the Air Force. He served from 1943 until 1946, studying meteorology, but didn't go overseas until 1945 where he observed weather in North Africa.
After World War II ended, Rehnquist attended Stanford University (with the help of the G.I. Bill), and in 1948 he earned his master's in political science. Apparently that wasn't enough schooling, since he then went on to Harvard, where he got a master's in government. Finally, he was ready to begin his career, after a quick trip to Stanford Law School; interestingly enough, he was in the same class as fellow justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Rehnquist was valedictorian at his graduation.
Rehnquist landed a position as law clerk under Justice Robert H. Jackson during the Supreme Court's 1951 and 1952 terms. During this period, an episode that would later attract a great deal of attention took place. The important Brown v. Board of Education case was argued on 8 December 1952, to be decided in 1954. During discussion of the case, Rehnquist wrote a memo entitled "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases", arguing that the principle of "separate but equal" as embodied in the 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson "was right and should be reaffirmed."
This memo came to light during his confirmation hearings in both 1971 and 1986, and Rehnquist stated under oath that the memo reflected the opinions of Justice Jackson. However, Jackson voted - along with the entire court - to mandate school desegregation. The truth of the matter may never be known for certain, but Jackson's longtime legal secretary angrily claimed that Rehnquist had smeared the reputation of his boss. Many legal scholars believe that Rehnquist lied during his confirmation hearings, although his support for segregation was always the result of his belief in majority rule and states' rights; Rehnquist believed that the Court should defer to the decisions of the voters in the South.
In 1953 Rehnquist moved to Phoenix, Arizona and worked in private practice until 1969. He continued to be involved in politics, serving as a political advisor to Barry Goldwater during his 1964 presidential campaign. He served as a poll watcher during this period, and charges were made during his confirmation hearings that he worked to discourage minority voters, although nothing was proven.
After Richard Nixon's election in 1968, Rehnquist moved back to Washington to serve as Assistant Attorney General under Attorney General John Mitchell. Nixon was apparently not close to him, as some of his famous tapes reveal that he referred to Rehnquist as "Renchburg". Some speculation even held that Rehnquist was the famed Deep Throat, although the disclosure of Deep Throat's identity laid those rumors to rest.
On the court
Rehnquist was nominated by Nixon to replace Justice John Marshall Harlan II after his retirement in 1971. Rehnquist was confirmed 68-26 and took his seat on 7 January 1972. He was considerably more conservative than his moderate predecessor, but both were highly committed to the notion of stare decisis and neither could be considered originalist in their approach to the Constitution.
Rehnquist was perhaps the most conservative justice on the Burger Court; as mentioned above, he dissented on Roe v. Wade and his views on states' rights led him to oppose further efforts to desegregate schools. He wrote the decision in Diamond v. Diehr, which eventually led to the almost unlimited right to patent computer software. In various court cases he supported a narrower construction of fair use, strengthening copyright protection.
With Warren Burger's retirement in 1986, Rehnquist was nominated to the Chief Justice seat. He was confirmed on 26 September, 65-33, and his Associate Justice seat was filled by Antonin Scalia. He continued his stance on states' rights, as in United States v. Lopez, which struck down a federal law, the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which was tenuously couched under the commerce clause. Rehnquist continued his conservative politics as Chief Justice, but in truth he was never as ideological in his leanings as fellow justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia; he was moderate enough to maintain a fairly harmonious court, and he tended to respect tradition rather than maintaining doctrinaire conservatism. One notable example was in the case Dickerson v. United States, which confirmed the legal requirement to read a suspect their Miranda Rights during arrest. Previously he had argued that the Miranda v. Arizona decision was overreaching, but in his decision in Dickerson, he argued that it had "become part of our national culture", an argument that exemplifies his commitment to tradition.
William Rehnquist's skills as an administrator - in assigning the writing of opinions and keeping the Court efficient - were unparalleled. He was committed to compromise and maintaining good feeling on the Court, but he also worked to keep meetings short, even to the point of limiting debate among the justices, seeing as in most cases their opinions were already made up. He was famously rigid in cutting lawyers off during oral arguments after their allotted period for argument had expired, even interrupting them in midsentence.
In October 2004, it was announced that Rehnquist had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and speculation began that he would soon step down (though given his age, discussion of the post-Rehnquist Court had gone on for some years.) He administered the Oath of Office to President George W. Bush during his second inauguration, but he moved slowly and left immediately afterwards. He did not attend oral arguments regularly during 2005, though he remained heavily involved in Court matters, participating in deliberation. He was expected to retire quickly, but the sudden announcement of Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement may have caused him to continue in hopes of easing his transition. Rehnquist responded to speculation in July that he might reply with "That's for me to know and you to find out."
He was hospitalized twice during the following months, until he died at home on 3 September 2005, at 80 years old. He was succeeded by one of his former law clerks, John Roberts, who was sworn in on 29 September. It's too soon to speak of Rehnquist's legacy, but he should be remembered for his ability to get along with his colleagues, earning the respect of ideological opponents like William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Rehnquist's work for Barry Goldwater underscores the fact that he was a conservative from a different era than today. William Rehnquist was never a cultural conservative, in the vein of the leadership in the Republican Party today; he believed firmly in the basic principles of judicial deference, precedent, and states' rights, and most of all in majority rule. He was fiscally conservative but believed that the state had no role in private issues of morality; the departure of his tempered presence from the Supreme Court may mark the passing of this type of conservatism.
Sources
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200504/rosen - "Rehnquist the Great?" The Atlantic Monthly. April 2005.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf - Supreme Court official bio
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR2005090401251.html - "The Rehnquist Legacy." Washington Post. 5 September 2005.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/rehnquist/rehnquist_key_decisions.html - "Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist's Key Decisions." Washington Post. 4 September 2005.
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