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The United States Supreme Court, on a 6-3 vote, has adopted a compromise position on the meaning of the independent state legislature theory. The position of the Court, in a decision by Chief Justice Roberts, is one that rejects the argument that North Carolina offered: that a state supreme court could not even apply a state constitution’s protection for the right to vote when it comes to federal elections. Under this maximalist version, rejected by the Court today, state legislatures had a free-floating power to do whatever they wanted in federal elections, limited only by federal constitutional limits. BUT, the...

If establishment pundits can’t deny a Republican’s intelligence, then they have to claim his intelligence is a problem. The other day, NPR’s Robert Siegel assembled his usual suspects from the New York Times, Washington Post and Brookings Institution to provide a “balanced” review of the week in politics, including the latest from Ted Cruz. These two short sentences provide a perfect example of the uphill climb Cruz and any Republican has ahead: DAVID BROOKS of the NY Times: “My problem with Cruz is that he’s very, very smart – he’s going to Wall Street these days and impressing people with...

Appointed by President Richard Nixon for his views on criminal justice and his endorsement of a more modest role for the Court, William H. Rehnquist was the most conservative member of the Burger Court; he was also often identified as the justice with the most impressive intellectual ability... After completing his clerkship with [Supreme Court Justice Henry] Jackson, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where for sixteen years he practiced law and participated in a variety of local political activities.(emphasis added)

Rehnquist’s Portrait Allie Winegar Duzett, November 12, 2009 William Rehnquist was by all accounts a fascinating man. His work in the judiciary was unparalleled: he served on the Supreme Court as a justice for over three decades, and led the court as Chief Justice for nineteen years. He was a justice voting on the controversial Roe v. Wade case (Rehnquist wrote the dissent), the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, and for the dispute over 2000 presidential election. As a justice for the Supreme Court, Rehnquist lived his life under public scrutiny—but only a very few got to know the man...

Personal letters, speeches and other papers of late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist will be housed at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank on the campus of Stanford University, officials announced Wednesday. "We are pleased that Chief Justice Rehnquist's papers are coming full circle back to Stanford, where he began his illustrious legal career," John Raisian, director of the Hoover Institution, said in a statement. Rehnquist, who served as chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005, graduated first in his Stanford law class in 1952. "Stanford is where our parents met as college students, and though...

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) recently said that, if elected president, he would end the federal raids on medical marijuana patients and their health care providers. That makes the Democratic field unanimous now — all would end the raids and allow the states to craft their own medical marijuana policy, free from federal interference. By contrast, just two of the remaining GOP candidates — Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) — and none of the front-runners have promised to call off the raids. This is unfortunate for a party that once fancied itself the torch-bearer for federalism —...

(AP) -- The FBI's file on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist — made public more than a year after his death — indicates the Nixon and Reagan administrations enlisted its help in blunting criticism of him during confirmation hearings. The file also offers insight into the hallucinations and other symptoms of withdrawal that Rehnquist suffered when he was taken off a prescription painkiller in 1981. A doctor was cited as saying that Rehnquist, an associate justice of the Supreme Court at the time, tried to escape the hospital in his pajamas and imagined that the CIA was plotting against him....

As found on Drudge Report ...WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI's file on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist _ made public more than a year after his death _ indicates the Nixon and Reagan administrations enlisted its help in blunting criticism of him during confirmation hearings. The file also offers insight into the hallucinations and other symptoms of withdrawal that Rehnquist suffered when he was taken off a prescription painkiller in 1981. A doctor was cited as saying that Rehnquist, an associate justice of the Supreme Court at the time, tried to escape the hospital in his pajamas and imagined that...

The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was praised Thursday by lawyers who practice before the Supreme Court as a man of sharp intellect, quick wit and love of family and friends. Rehnquist, who died last September after a long battle with throat cancer, served nearly 34 years on the court first as an associate justice and then as chief justice. During a special session of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts, a former Rehnquist law clerk, praised his predecessor not only for his contributions to the law but also for "knowing what was important in life." Speaker after...

WASHINGTON, May 2 — This is the week that the Supreme Court, done with its regular argument sessions, enters the stretch run. While it is too soon for substantive appraisals of the first year of the Roberts court, it is not too soon for stylistic observations about what is clearly, in the view of lawyers who have appeared there this term, a different court. "The tone has changed," Prof. Richard J. Lazarus of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he runs the Supreme Court Institute and teaches a course on Supreme Court advocacy, said on Tuesday. In common with every...

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced Friday that she is stepping down from the Supreme Court. In anticipation of resignations—Chief Justice William Rehnquist's had been thought most likely—the Bush administration has floated several names for possible nominees. What views have the president's shortlisters expressed, on and off the bench? In order of our best guess as to the likelihood that they'll be chosen, here's a guide to the prospective nominees' records. 1) Michael J. Luttig, 51 2) John Roberts, 50 3) Emilio Garza, 58 4) Michael McConnell, 50 5) Alberto Gonzales, 49 6) J. Harvie Wilkinson III, 60 7) Edith Brown...

(...) Third party sources are now telling me that the John Paul Stevens rumor is true and that the White House is now planning for a third vacancy, but not until the end of the year [2005]. Third party sources, who I treat as credible, say that Stevens has begun taking actions in his personal life to make arrangements for personal affairs. It is presumed that Stevens is taking steps to retire. A separate third party source tells me that Ginsberg is not expected to retire, as her health is fine. Stevens has reportedly sent signals that he will retire...

There appears to be no war on Christmas at the Supreme Court. President George W. Bush and other federal officials have been criticized in recent weeks for not using the word "Christmas" in greeting cards or in describing parties or other traditional December events. But at the Supreme Court, employees were invited by e-mail to the annual "Christmas Recess Party," set for today. At the party in the Great Hall of the Court, attendees will see a majestic fir that is decorated and unabashedly called a Christmas tree. This is nothing new at the Court, where the late Chief Justice...

To those of you who may be asking yourselves, "Why, on the verge of the twenty-first century, should we look back at events that happened during the Civil War nearly a century and a half ago?" I would offer several replies. In the first place, the political events of the Civil War are of considerable interest in their own right. The cast of characters on the stage at that time--Abraham Lincoln; William H. Seward, Lincoln's rival for the Presidential nomination in 1860 whom Lincoln later appointed Secretary of State; Edwin M. Stanton, a remarkably able Secretary of War, and others--make ...

There appears to be no war on Christmas at the Supreme Court. President George W. Bush and other federal officials have been criticized in recent weeks for not using the word "Christmas" in greeting cards or in describing parties or other traditional December events. But at the Supreme Court, employees were invited to the annual "Christmas Recess Party," set for today. At the party in the Great Hall of the Court, attendees will see a majestic fir that is decorated and unabashedly called a Christmas tree. This is nothing new at the Court, where the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist...

The nomination of Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court raises a lot of questions about the judge's attitudes toward federalism, privacy and civil rights. But it has already answered one big question about President Bush. Anyone wondering whether the almost endless setbacks and embarrassments the White House has suffered over the last year would cause Mr. Bush to fix his style of governing should realize that the answer is: no. As a political candidate, Mr. Bush had an extremely useful ability to repeat the same few simple themes over and over. As president, he has been cramped by the...

Questions About Miers that Bush Needs to Answer by Phyllis Schlafly Posted Oct 14, 2005 If John G. Roberts' confirmation hearing is any guide, we won't learn anything from Harriet Miers' confirmation hearing. So here are some questions we would like President Bush to answer. You said, "Trust me." But why should we trust you when experience proves we could not trust the judgment of President Reagan (who gave us Justices O'Connor and Kennedy) or President George H.W. Bush (who gave us Justice Souter)? Are you more trustworthy than Reagan or your father? You said, "She's not going to change.......

One of the first and most important arguments that the anti-Miers camp tells us that Miers is not qualified because she never served as a judge. Well either the anti-Miers conservatives are hypocrites or they are totally ignorant because the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, one of the most conservative justices ever, was never a judge before he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Nixon. Here is a Link for the biography of late Chief Justice Rehnquist. http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/rehnquist.htm

According to First Among Equals, Ken Starr's history of the Supreme Court, one of the key features of the Rehnquist Court (which he claims could as easily be called the O'Connor Court) has been the reassertion of federalism. Certainly, Rehnquist and O'Connor were among the dissenters in the disgraceful Gonzales vs Raich, which eliminated the ability of the states to regulate intra-state commerce in marijuana. This means two of the three dissenters to that appalling ruling will soon be off the Court. Their two replacements both have long experience of serving in the executive branch. We might reasonably expect, therefore,...

    WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES 1924 - 2005