Free Republic

WILLIAM H. Rehnquist was one of the great chief justices in American history. Over the last three decades, he moved the Supreme Court in a more conservative direction, advancing states' rights, expanding police powers and returning the country to its Tocquevillian roots. But in recent years his colleagues have handed him a series of setbacks in areas dear to him — including religion, property rights, federalism and capital punishment — signaling that perhaps the time had come for fresh leadership. Leading the court is a notorious challenge. Justices are a famously independent bunch. A chief justice cannot order his colleagues...

IN 1987, the Reagan administration seriously underestimated the energy and ruthlessness that its opponents would be willing to bring to bear against a Supreme Court nominee.There was no excuse for being thus taken by surprise: earlier campaigns against various Court of Appeals nominees had shown what the organized left was willing to do. For example, Daniel Manion--confirmed in a squeaker, by a Republican Senate; Alex Kozinski--confirmed after suffering attacks for demanding work from his employees; Jeff Sessions--defeated by a 10-8 Judiciary Committee vote (with Arlen Specter, now chairman of the Judiciary Committee member, among the nays). These experiences even led...