William Rehnquist

William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney, jurist, and political figure, who served as a United States Supreme Court justice from 1972 until 1986, and as Chief Justice from 1986 until his death in 2005.

Rehnquist served as a law clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson and as Assistant Attorney General during the administration of President Richard Nixon.

In 1971, Nixon nominated Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court as an Associate Justice; Rehnquist took his seat in 1972. In 1986, Ronald Reagan elevated him to the position of Chief Justice. He went on to preside over the court as Chief Justice for 19 years, making him the fourth-longest-serving Chief Justice after Melville Weston Fuller, Roger B. Taney and John Marshall.

Rehnquist died at age 80 on September 3, 2005, from complications of thyroid cancer, which he had publicly announced in October of 2004. Rehnquist was the first Supreme Court justice to die in office since Justice Robert H. Jackson died in 1954 and the first Chief Justice to die in office since Fred M. Vinson died in 1953.

On September 5, 2005, Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, previously nominated for an Associate Justice position on the Supreme Court, was nominated by President George W. Bush to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice. Roberts had clerked for Rehnquist from 1980 to 1981, and was a pallbearer at Rehnquist's Washington, D.C. funeral.

Early life

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Shorewood High School senior William Rehnquist in the 1942 yearbook.

William Donald Rehnquist was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and grew up in the suburb of Shorewood. He was the grandson of Swedish immigrants. His father, William Benjamin Rehnquist, was a paper salesman; his mother, Margery Peck Rehnquist, was a translator and homemaker. Rehnquist changed his middle name to Hubbs, his grandmother's maiden name, during his high school years. After graduating from Shorewood High School in 1942, Rehnquist attended Kenyon College for one quarter in the fall of 1942, before entering the U.S. Army Air Corps. Rehnquist served in World War II from March 1943 to 1946. He was put into a pre-meteorology program, and was assigned to Denison University until February 1944, when the program was shut down. He did 3 months at Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma City, 3 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 the maintenance and repair of weather instruments. In the summer of 1945 he went overseas and served as a weather observer in North Africa.

After the war ended, Rehnquist attended Stanford University with assistance under the provisons of the G.I. Bill. In 1948, he received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science. In 1950, he went to Harvard University, where he received a master's degree in government. He returned later to the Stanford Law School, where he graduated first in his class (ahead of Sandra Day O'Connor, who was also in his class, and who would later serve alongside him on the Supreme Court). Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has alleged that while at Stanford, Rehnquist engaged in publicly bigoted acts (such as goose-stepping and making the "Heil Hitler" salute in front of Jewish student dormitories) although others dispute this.[1]

Rehnquist went to Washington, D.C. to work as a law clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson during the court's 1951–1952 terms. There, he wrote a memorandum arguing against school desegregation while the court was considering the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Rehnquist later claimed that the memo was meant to reflect Jackson's views and not his own. Rehnquist’s memo, entitled “A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases,” defended the separate-but-equal doctrine embodied in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Rehnquist concluded that Plessy “was right and should be reaffirmed.” When questioned about the memos by the Senate Judiciary Committee in both 1971 and 1986, Rehnquist blamed his defense of segregation on the late Justice Jackson, stating – under oath – that his memo was meant to reflect the views of Justice Jackson. But Justice Jackson voted in Brown, along with a unanimous Court, to strike down school segregation. According to historian Mark Tushnet, Justice Jackson’s longtime legal secretary called Rehnquist’s Senate testimony an attempt to “smear[] the reputation of a great justice.” Rehnquist later admitted to defending Plessy in arguments with fellow law clerks. He did not acknowledge that he committed perjury in front of the Judiciary Committee to get his Supreme Court job.

Rehnquist moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he was in private practice from 1953 to 1969. During these years, he was active in the Republican Party and served as a legal advisor to Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. During the 1986 U.S. Senate hearings on his chief justice nomination, several people came forward to complain about what they viewed as Rehnquist's attempts to discourage minority voters in Arizona elections when Rehnquist served as a "poll watcher" in the early 1960s. Rehnquist denied the charges.

Justice Department and Supreme Court service

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Rehnquist portrait as an Associate Justice in 1976.

When President Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, Rehnquist returned to work in Washington. He served as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel, from 1969 to 1971. In this role, he served as the chief lawyer to Attorney General John Mitchell. President Nixon mistakenly referred to him as "Renchburg" in several of the tapes of Oval Office conversations revealed during the Watergate investigations. Because he was well-placed in the Justice Department, Rehnquist was mentioned for many years as a possibility for the source known as Deep Throat during the 1970s Watergate scandal. Bob Woodward's May 31, 2005, disclosure that W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat put these claims to rest.

Nixon nominated Rehnquist to replace John Marshall Harlan II on the Supreme Court upon Harlan's retirement, and after being confirmed by the Senate by a 68–26 vote on December 10, 1971, Rehnquist took his seat as an Associate Justice on January 7, 1972. There were two vacancies on the court at the time; Nixon nominated Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. to fill the other.

On the Burger Court, Rehnquist promptly established himself as the most conservative of Nixon's appointees, taking a narrow view of the Fourteenth Amendment and a broad view of state power. He voted against the expansion of school desegregation plans and the establishment of legalized abortions (dissenting in the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)) and in favor of school prayer, capital punishment and states' rights.

Rehnquist wrote the decision Diamond v. Diehr, which made a hole in the dike against software patents in the United States erected by Justice Stevens in Parker v. Flook; the dike collapsed within a few years and software patenting is now virtually unlimited. In the Betamax case, again Justice Stevens authored the opinion upholding individual rights while Rehnquist joined the dissent which wished to strengthen copyright controls. In Eldred v. Ashcroft, Rehnquist was in the majority favoring the copyright holders, with Justice Stevens dissenting in favor of individuals.

When Chief Justice Warren Burger retired in 1986, then-President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to fill the position. Despite some controversy, he was confirmed by the Senate by a 65–33 vote and assumed the office on September 26. Rehnquist's associate justice seat was filled by Antonin Scalia.

After becoming Chief Justice, Rehnquist continued to lead the Court's move towards taking a broader view of state powers in the U.S. federal system. 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 commerce clause. Rehnquist has also led the way in establishing more governmental leniency towards state aid for religion, writing for another 5-to-4 majority in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002), approving a school voucher program that aided parochial schools.

Rehnquist also created a unique robe for himself as Chief Justice in 1994. It has four golden bars on each sleeve. In the past, Chief Justices had not dressed differently from any of the Associate Justices. Rehnquist's robe was modeled after a robe he had seen in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Iolanthe. The costume that inspired Chief Justice Rehnquist, an acknowledged Gilbert and Sullivan fan, is worn by the Lord Chancellor.

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. In 2000 Rehnquist wrote the concurring opinion in Bush v. Gore.

Health history

Back Pain Treated with Sedatives

In February of 1977, Rehnquist injured his back severely enough to be hospitalized for a week and placed in traction. He then suffered from chronic lower back pain. In late 1981, Supreme Court observers noted that his speech was slurred and sometimes not understandable. On December 27, 1981 he entered George Washington University Hospital for treatment of side effects, including slurred speech, caused by a drug he was taking to relieve back pain. The drug was reported to be the prescription sedative Placidyl, which can be addictive.

Thyroid Cancer

On October 26, 2004, the Supreme Court announced that Rehnquist had recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and that he had been hospitalized at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland for the past five days before the announcement. In a brief statement, the Court said that Rehnquist underwent a tracheotomy two days prior. This led to renewed speculation in the media over Rehnquist's health and his possible retirement and potential replacements.

Because of his health problems, doubts were raised about whether he would be able to administer the oath of office to President George W. Bush at his inaugural on January 20, 2005. Rehnquist did swear in Bush at the inaugural. He arrived using a cane, walking very slowly, and left immediately after the oath itself was administered.

After missing 44 oral arguments before the court in late 2004 and early 2005, Rehnquist appeared on the bench again on March 21. During his absence, however, he remained involved in the business of the court, participating in many of the decisions and deliberations made. On May 23, Rehnquist briefly visited the Capitol Medical Department, furthering speculation that he would retire at the end of the term.

On July 1, Rehnquist's colleague Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement from her position of Associate Justice, which possibly affected Rehnquist's decision of whether or not to announce his own retirement.

Speculation of Rehnquist's pending retirement was raised on July 8 by various rumors, most notably by a headline on The Drudge Report. When no Rehnquist announcement had come by late morning, new speculation started that the White House had asked the Chief Justice to delay making public a decision until Bush returned from an overseas trip. But after stopping by the British ambassador's residence to sign a condolence book for victims of the London bombing, Bush returned to the White House with no word on Rehnquist. Commenting on the frenzy of speculation over his retirement, he said "That's for me to know and you to find out."

On Wednesday, July 13, the Chief Justice was again hospitalized, this time with a high fever, reportedly a complication of his ongoing treatment for thyroid cancer.

On Thursday, July 14, hours after being released from the hospital, Rehnquist issued the following statement: "I want to put to rest the speculation and unfounded rumors of my imminent retirement. I am not about to announce my retirement. I will continue to perform my duties as chief justice as long as my health permits."

On August 4, 2005, Rehnquist was again admitted to a hospital, again with a fever.

Death

Rehnquist died at his Arlington, Virginia, home on September 3, 2005, at the age of 80, after enduring a long battle with thyroid cancer. His three children by his late wife, Natalie Cornell (who died from ovarian cancer in 1991) were present at his bedside. Rehnquist's passing was somewhat overshadowed by the devastation following Hurricane Katrina, which had hit the Gulf Coast less than a week prior to his death.

Funeral arrangements

On the morning of September 6, 2005, eight of Rehnquist's former law clerks (including John Roberts, who is nominated to succeed him) helped carry Rehnquist's coffin into the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building where it was placed on the catafalque that bore Abraham Lincoln as he laid in state following his 1865 assassination. [2]

Rehnquist's body laid in the Great Hall in repose until his funeral on September 7, a Lutheran service conducted at the Roman Catholic St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He was eulogized by President Bush and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as well as members of his family. [3] His funeral was followed by a private burial service, in which he was interred next to his late wife, Nan, at Arlington National Cemetery [4].

Succession as Chief Justice

The vacancy left by Rehnquist's death came just over two months after Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's July 1, 2005, announcement that she would retire from the Court, leaving two vacancies to be filled by President George W. Bush (though O'Connor will remain on the bench until the confirmation of her successor).

On September 5, 2005, President Bush announced that he was nominating Judge John Roberts, whom he had nominated on July 19, 2005 to replace retiring Associate Justice O'Connor, to instead succeed Rehnquist as Chief Justice.

Family life

Rehnquist's paternal grandparents immigrated separately (although they may have known one another before) from Sweden in 1880. His grandfather Olof Andersson, who changed the family name from Andersson to Rehnquist, was born in the province of Värmland and his grandmother was born Adolfina Ternberg in Vretakloster (parish) in Östergötland. Rehnquist is one of only two Chief Justices of Swedish descent, the other being Earl Warren, who had Norwegian-Swedish ancestry.

Rehnquist married Natalie "Nan" Cornell on August 29 1953. She died on October 17, 1991 after suffering from ovarian cancer. They had three children: James, Janet and Nancy. William Rehnquist's daughter Janet is a former Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Rehnquist often spent summers in Vermont.

Trivia

Rehnquist added four gold stripes to the sleeves of his robe in 1995 after viewing a production of "Iolanthe", and being inspired by the costume of the Lord Chancellor.

References

Molotsky, Irvin. "Doctor Says Pain Drug Caused Justice Rehnquist to Slur His Speech." The New York Times, January 2, 1982. p. 9.
Lane, Charles. "Chief Justice Dies at Age 80." The Washington Post, September 4, 2005. p. A01.

External links

Preceded by John Marshall Harlan II	Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States January 7, 1972 – September 26, 1986	Succeeded by Antonin Scalia
Preceded by Warren E. Burger	Chief Justice of the United States September 26, 1986 – September 3, 2005	Succeeded by