Chief Justice Rehnquist, dies at 80

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Chief Justice Rehnquist, dies at 80

Postby media » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:05 am

Chief Justice Rehnquist, a Supreme Court institution, dies at 80
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who quietly advanced
the conservative ideology of the Supreme Court under his leadership, died
Saturday at age 80.
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Postby media » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:33 am

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died
Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme
Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.
A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his
three children when he died in Arlington.
"The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed
last October and continued to perform his dues on the court until a
precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," she
said.
Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate
justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7,
1982. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.
His death ends a remarkable 33-year Supreme Court career during
which Rehnquist oversaw the court's conservative shift, presided
over an impeachment trial and helped decide a presidential
election.
The death President Bush his second court opening within pour
months and sets up what's expected to be an even more bruising
Senate confirmation battle than that of John Roberts.
It was not immediately clear what impact Rehnquist's death would
have on confirmation hearings for Roberts, scheduled to begin
Tuesday.
Rehnquist, 80 and ill with cancer, presided over President
Clinton's impeachment trial in 1999, helped settle the 2000
presidential election in Bush's favor, and fashioned decisions over
the years that diluted the powers of the federal government while
strengthening those of the states.
Arberg said plans regarding funeral arrangements would be
forthcoming.
Bush was notified of Rehnquist's death shortly before 11 p.m.
EDT.
"President Bush and Mrs. Bush are saddened by the news," said
White House counselor Dan Bartlett. "It's a tremendous loss for
our nation." The president was expected to make a personal
statement about Rehnquist on Sunday.
The chief justice passed up a chance to step down over the
summer, which would have given the Senate a chance to confirm his
successor while the court was out of session, and instead Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement to spend time with her
ill husband. Bush chose Roberts, a former Rehnquist clerk and
friend, to replace O'Connor.
Rehnquist said in July that he wanted to stay on the bench as
long as his health would allow.
The president could elevate to chief justice one of the court's
conservatives, such as Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas, but it's
more likely he will choose someone from outside the court.
Possible replacements include Attorney General Alberto R.
Gonzales and federal courts of appeals judges J. Michael Luttig,
Edith Clement, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Michael McConnell, Emilio
Garza, and James Harvie Wilkinson III. Others mentioned are former
Solicitor General Theodore Olson, lawyer Miguel Estrada and former
deputy attorney general Larry Thompson.
Rehnquist announced last October that he had thyroid cancer. He
had a trachea tube inserted to help him breathe and underwent
radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Details of the chief
justice's illness and his plans had been tightly guarded. He looked
frail at Bush's inauguration in January and missed five months of
court sessions before returning to the bench in March.
On the court's final meeting day of the last term, June 27,
Rehnquist appeared gaunt and had difficulty as he announced the
last decision of the term -- an opinion he wrote upholding a Ten
Commandments display in Texas. His breathing was labored, and he
kept the explanation short.
He had no public appearances over the summer, although he was
filmed by television crews in July as he left the hospital
following two nights for treatment of a fever.
Rehnquist had an extraordinary career, with many historic
milestones.
In 1999, he presided over Bill Clinton's impeachment trial from
the presiding officer's chair seat in the Senate, something only
one other chief justice had done. A year later he was one of five
Republican-nominated justices who voted to stop presidential ballot
recounts in Florida, effectively deciding the election for Bush
over Democrat Al Gore.
"The Supreme Court of Florida ordered recounts of tens of
thousands of so-called `undervotes' spread through 64 of the
state's 67 counties. This was done in a search for elusive --
perhaps delusive -- certainty as to the exact count of 6 million
votes," he wrote.
Rehnquist, who championed states' rights and helped speed up
executions, is the only member still on the court who voted on Roe
v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion. He opposed
that decision, writing: "Even today, when society's views on
abortion are changing, the very existence of the debate is evidence
that the `right' to an abortion is not so universally accepted as
(Roe) would have us believe."
He believed there was a place for some religion in government.
He wrote the 5-4 decision in 2002 that said parents may use public
tax money to send their children to religious schools. Two years
later, he was distressed when the court passed up a chance to
declare that the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is
constitutional.
"The phrase 'under God' in the pledge seems, as a historical
matter, to sum up the attitude of the nation's leaders, and to
manifest itself in many of our public observances," he wrote.
Rehnquist leaves without accomplishing the legal revolution he
had hoped for as the nation's 16th chief justice. As Rehnquist read
it, the Constitution lets states outlaw abortion and sponsor
prayers in public schools but bars them from giving special,
affirmative-action preferences to racial minorities and women. The
court he led disagreed.
In 2003, for example, the court preserved affirmative action in
college admissions and issued a landmark gay rights ruling that
struck down laws criminalizing gay sex, both over Rehnquist's
objections. And last year, Rehnquist disagreed when the court ruled
that the government cannot indefinitely detain terrorism suspects
and deny them access to courts
Rehnquist was somewhat of a surprise choice when President Nixon
nominated him to the court in 1971. He was a 47-year-old Justice
Department lawyer with a reputation for brilliance and unbending
conservative ideology when he was chosen to fill the seat of
retiring Justice John Marshall Harlan. Rehnquist, who practiced law
in Phoenix before moving to Washington, was the court's youngest
member.
For years he was known as the "Lone Ranger" for his many
dissents on a then-liberal court that left him ideologically
isolated on the far right. Succeeding appointments of conservative
justices and Rehnquist's elevation by President Reagan to the
federal judiciary's top job in 1986 transformed his role into one
of leading and nurturing an increasingly conservative Supreme
Court.
Rehnquist was the force behind the court's push for greater
states' rights. The chief justice has been the leader of five
conservatives, sometimes called "the Rehnquist five," who
generally advocate limited federal government interference.
Those five -- Rehnquist and O'Connor, Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and
Thomas -- have voted together to strike down federal laws intended
to protect female victims of violent crime and keep guns away from
schools, on grounds that those issues were better dealt with at the
local level. They split, however, in a recent decision upholding
the federal government's right to ban sick people from smoking
marijuana even in states that have laws allowing the treatment.
The Rehnquist five were together in the Bush v. Gore decision,
which critics predicted would tarnish the court's hard-won luster.
The closing paragraph of a book Rehnquist wrote on the court's
history may stand as his answer to criticism.
Rehnquist noted that the court makes "demonstrable errors"
from time to time, but he added, "It and the country have survived
these mistakes and the court as an institution has steadily grown
in authority and prestige."
He had deflected criticism about his views on race during his
1971 confirmation, and the one 15 years later when he became chief
justice. As a law clerk to Justice Robert Jackson, Rehnquist wrote
memos in 1952 that appeared to suggest Jackson should oppose Brown
v. Board of Education, the landmark ruling that declared public
school segregation unconstitutional.
As chief justice, Rehnquist drew complaints when he led a group
of lawyers and judges in a rendition of "Dixie" at a conference
in Virginia in 1999. He did not respond to a black lawyers'
organization that called the song an offensive "symbol of slavery
and oppression."
Rehnquist, a widower since 1991, dodged questions about his
legacy in a March 2004 interview. He said that he tried to keep the
court running smoothly and keep the peace among the justices.
"To get everybody working harmoniously together is not a small
feat," he said on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show." "You have to
have a very high boiling point."
Within the court, Rehnquist was a far more popular chief justice
than his predecessor, Warren Burger. Liberal Justice John Paul
Stevens said in 2002 that Rehnquist brought "efficiency, good
humor and absolute impartiality" to the job. Some justices
complained that Burger was heavy-handed and pompous.
Rehnquist's grandparents emigrated to the United States from
Sweden in 1880 and settled in Chicago. His grandfather was a
tailor, his grandmother a school teacher. Rehnquist grew up in
Wisconsin, the son of paper salesman and a translator.
He at first had planned to be a college professor, but a test
showed him suited to the legal field. In 1952, he graduated first
in his class at Stanford University's law school, where he briefly
dated O'Connor, the high court's first female justice.
Rehnquist caused great amusement when he departed from tradition
by adding four shiny gold stripes to each sleeve of his black robe
in 1995. The flourish was inspired by a costume in a Gilbert &
Sullivan operetta.
A close student of the Supreme Court's traditions and history,
he was a stickler for decorum. He frequently admonished hapless
lawyers who did not show what Rehnquist regarded as proper courtesy
in the courtroom. His gravelly monotone silenced any who kept
talking past their allotted time.
He was the enthusiastic host of an annual, old-fashioned
employee Christmas party at the court. At a time when many schools,
government offices and private businesses quietly did away with
overtly Christian holiday symbols, Rehnquist led the singing of
traditional Christmas carols.
Rehnquist has led a quiet social life outside the court. Until
recently, he walked daily, as tonic for a chronic bad back, and
played tennis with his law clerks. He enjoyed bridge, spending time
with his eight grandchildren, charades and a monthly poker game
with Scalia and a revolving cast of powerful Washington men. He
liked beer, and smoked in private.
The only chief justice older than Rehnquist was Roger Taney, who
presided over the high court in the mid-1800s until his death at
87. Rehnquist was also closing in on the record for longest-serving
justice. Only four men were on the court 34 years or longer.
------
On the Net:
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
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Postby media » Sun Sep 04, 2005 4:31 am

That old dead fart is loving this.......Why? He hated the media! What a better time to pass when we (media) cant make it the prime story!
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Postby svizzerams » Sun Sep 04, 2005 4:35 am

RIP Judge Rehnquist - but as a progressive this feels like another dong of doleful doom for the state of the nation. This is really shaping up to be one hell of a depressing week for the land of the free and the home of the brave. I guess one could see this as a nice break from endless stories of suicide bombers in Baghdad suburbs.
Joan of Arc went to battle with nothing
but the voices in her head
and a well-sharpened sword ~ Charlotte

...those without swords can still die upon them...

Illegitami non carborundum est
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