Jeff240sx
09-03-2005, 10:42 PM
Chief Justice William Rehnquist died on Saturday evening at his home in Arlington, Va., a spokeswoman for the the supreme court announced.
"The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his duties on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," Kathy Arberg, the court's spokeswoman said. The chief justice was surrounded by his three children at the time of his death, she said.
Rehnquist served on the court for 33 years, steering American jurisprudence in a fundamentally different direction from the liberal court of the 1960s headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
The court announced in October of 2004 that Rehnquist was being treated for thyroid cancer.
At age 47, Rehnquist was nominated to the court by President Nixon in October 1971, and was sworn in on Jan. 7, 1972. President Reagan elevated Rehnquist to chief justice in 1986. During his tenure, Rehnquist charted a conservative course for the court. He led the court during a period in which it was called upon to help decide a presidential election and preside over an impeachment trial.
With the death of the chief justice, President Bush will have the opportunity to make a second appointment to the Supreme Court. Earlier this summer, the president nominated Judge John Roberts to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement. Those hearings, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, are scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
Dissenter becomes leader
Led by Rehnquist, the justices breathed some life into the previously moribund Tenth and Eleventh Amendments to the Constitution, which safeguard the powers of the states and limit the reach of Congress and federal agencies.
"His story could be told as someone who started out as an isolated dissenter who ultimately became the conventional wisdom for the majority of the court," said Sanford Levinson, professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas Law School.
"He really does — along with (Justice Sandra Day) O'Connor — have a certain contempt for Congress," Levinson added. "He wants to protect the vulnerable states against a rampaging Congress. He is viscerally committed to the goodness of states."
FACT FILE William H. Rehnquist
Chief Justice of the United States
J. Scott Applewhite / AP File
Born: Oct. 1, 1924 in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Education: B.A., M.A., and LL.B., Stanford University, M.A., Harvard University.
Military service: U.S. Army Air Corps, 1943–1946.
Career: Law clerk for the Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, 1951-1953; Private law practice, Phoenix, Ariz., 1953–1969. Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, 1969–1971.
Supreme Court service: Nominated by President Nixon as an associate justice and took his seat, Jan. 7, 1972. Nominated by President Reagan as chief justice and sworn in, Sept. 26, 1986.
According to Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec, before Rehnquist went to the court, "law students didn't know about or study the Eleventh Amendment," which imposes limits on suits against state governments.
"Rehnquist has been enormously influential in curbing, if not reversing, the Court's pro-criminal defendant rulings of the 1960s, in establishing state sovereignty decisions, and in questioning the scope of Congress's enumerated powers, for example, invalidating substantial portions of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act," said Dennis Hutchinson, a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
Are you fucking kidding me? Message too short?!
-Jeff
"The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his duties on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," Kathy Arberg, the court's spokeswoman said. The chief justice was surrounded by his three children at the time of his death, she said.
Rehnquist served on the court for 33 years, steering American jurisprudence in a fundamentally different direction from the liberal court of the 1960s headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
The court announced in October of 2004 that Rehnquist was being treated for thyroid cancer.
At age 47, Rehnquist was nominated to the court by President Nixon in October 1971, and was sworn in on Jan. 7, 1972. President Reagan elevated Rehnquist to chief justice in 1986. During his tenure, Rehnquist charted a conservative course for the court. He led the court during a period in which it was called upon to help decide a presidential election and preside over an impeachment trial.
With the death of the chief justice, President Bush will have the opportunity to make a second appointment to the Supreme Court. Earlier this summer, the president nominated Judge John Roberts to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement. Those hearings, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, are scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
Dissenter becomes leader
Led by Rehnquist, the justices breathed some life into the previously moribund Tenth and Eleventh Amendments to the Constitution, which safeguard the powers of the states and limit the reach of Congress and federal agencies.
"His story could be told as someone who started out as an isolated dissenter who ultimately became the conventional wisdom for the majority of the court," said Sanford Levinson, professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas Law School.
"He really does — along with (Justice Sandra Day) O'Connor — have a certain contempt for Congress," Levinson added. "He wants to protect the vulnerable states against a rampaging Congress. He is viscerally committed to the goodness of states."
FACT FILE William H. Rehnquist
Chief Justice of the United States
J. Scott Applewhite / AP File
Born: Oct. 1, 1924 in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Education: B.A., M.A., and LL.B., Stanford University, M.A., Harvard University.
Military service: U.S. Army Air Corps, 1943–1946.
Career: Law clerk for the Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, 1951-1953; Private law practice, Phoenix, Ariz., 1953–1969. Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, 1969–1971.
Supreme Court service: Nominated by President Nixon as an associate justice and took his seat, Jan. 7, 1972. Nominated by President Reagan as chief justice and sworn in, Sept. 26, 1986.
According to Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec, before Rehnquist went to the court, "law students didn't know about or study the Eleventh Amendment," which imposes limits on suits against state governments.
"Rehnquist has been enormously influential in curbing, if not reversing, the Court's pro-criminal defendant rulings of the 1960s, in establishing state sovereignty decisions, and in questioning the scope of Congress's enumerated powers, for example, invalidating substantial portions of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act," said Dennis Hutchinson, a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
Are you fucking kidding me? Message too short?!
-Jeff