Can an outsider be appointed Chief Justice....does it have to be a sitting Justice who gets that post?
Historically, when a new Chief Justice is named, he has usually been an outsider. Of the 16 Chief Justices in the Supreme Court's history, only 3 of them were elevated from among the sitting Supreme Court justices - so Rehnquist being elevated as he was, was a relative rarity. The prior three Chief Justices before Rehnquist were all outsiders.