Posted on 09/06/2005 6:49:31 AM PDT by hinterlander
The author of Unfit for Command was a law clerk for the late Chief Justice and remembers him fondly.
The busts of the Chief Justices of the United States stand facing each other two-by-two across the Great Hall of the Supreme Court Building. Hughes and Taft, Vinson and Warren the fifteen statues march slowly to the courtroom doors, marking silently the progression of our nation's history. There is an empty niche immediately outside the doors of the Great Courtroom. Soon that niche will be filled with a marble depiction of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquistthe last World War II veteran to hold one of the four major offices of the United States and the last direct intellectual descendant of the great judicial restrainists of the early twentieth centuryJustices Jackson and Frankfurter.
June 1975. The Supreme Court's 1974 term, once again dominated by remnants of the Warren Court (justices such as Douglas, Brennan, and Marshall), was marked primarily by the Nixon Tapes Case (foreshadowing and contributing to the final destruction of the Nixon presidency) and additional sociological engineering in scattered abortion decisions. In the petition granted in the Goldfarb Case, the court opened the doors to the tasteless legal advertising that in later years overwhelmed the bar and the nation.
In a small room at the court, a few . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
Beautifully written piece. Thank you for posting this.
Just realized who the author is. Of course!
John Roberts is one of the Pall Bearer bringing the Chief's casket into the Supreme Court right now.
Wow, bittersweet moment for him.
Probably just bitter. They were both looking forward to serving together on the court.
Unlike that weasel Kennedy who "evolved" while in office.
Where were Kennedy and Souter at the funeral? And why was Souter the only justice not to issue a statement? Even Ginsburg and Stevens who he disagrees with on fundamental issues had the class to issue a statement of condolence.
I don't know. My animus has always been against Kennedy, not Souter. Souter was a blank slate. He was called the "stealth candidate". But Kennedy was understood to be a conservative Catholic at his nomination who "evolved" once in office.
I don't trust "evolvers".
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