Bob Hawke
Australian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia (1929-2019)
chief justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005
William Rehnquist was a conservative Chief Justice of the United States who served from 1986 until his death in 2005. He was known for his views on federalism and for ruling against Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. Rehnquist had a long and influential legal career, including serving as a Supreme Court Justice and a key advisor to Republican presidential candidates.
Table of Contents
William Hubbs Rehnquistwas 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 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 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.
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 Educationand 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 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 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. Lopezand United States v. Morrisonand 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.
William Rehnquist was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005. He had previously served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court from 1972 to 1986.
William Rehnquist grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1946. He studied political science at Stanford and Harvard, then attended Stanford Law School where he graduated first in his class.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon nominated Rehnquist to succeed Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him that year. Rehnquist was later nominated by President Ronald Reagan to become the 16th Chief Justice in 1986.
Rehnquist favored a conception of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment’s reservation of powers to the states. Under this view, the Supreme Court struck down acts of Congress as exceeding its power under the Commerce Clause for the first time since the 1930s.
As Chief Justice, Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999.
Rehnquist wrote the majority opinions in United States v. Lopez (1995) and United States v. Morrison (2000), which held that Congress had exceeded its power under the Commerce Clause. He also dissented in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
In the case of Bush v. Gore, Rehnquist voted with the court’s majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
It is always possible for the court to overreach its proper bounds and perhaps declare a lot of laws unconstitutional and frustrate the will of the majority in a way that it ought not be frustrated.
chief justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005
Perhaps you should say there should be mandatory retirement even of members of the court, members of the federal judiciary. I’m sure there can be questions about whether one does as good work when you get into your – you know, I’m 67.
chief justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005
If you could say of any one individual that the court as an institution is the length and shadow of that individual, surely it would be John Marshall.
chief justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005