William Rehnquist
Chief Justice of the United States
Died when: 80 years 337 days (971 months)Star Sign: Libra
William Hubbs Rehnquist (/'r?nkw?st/ REN-kwist;October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S.
Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005.
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 (with the exception of National League of Cities v.
Usery, which was overruled in Garcia v.San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority), 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 during the final years of World War II.
After the war's end in 1945, 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 1952–53 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 Education and allegedly taking part in voter suppression efforts targeting minorities as a lawyer.
Whether he committed perjury during the hearings is debated by historians, 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 fourth-longest-serving Chief and the eighth-longest-serving Justice.He became an intellectual and social leader of the Rehnquist Court, earning respect even from the justices who frequently opposed his opinions.
Though he remained a strong member of the conservative wing of the court, Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were often regarded as more conservative.
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 opposed Roe v.Wade and continued to argue that Roe had been incorrectly decided in Planned Parenthood v.Casey.
In Bush v.Gore, he voted with the court's majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
Related People
.jpg?width=300)
Chief Justice of the United States
Chief Justice of the United States
Chief justice