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{{Short description|Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005}}
{{redirect|Rehnquist|the surname|Rehnquist (surname)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = William Rehnquist
| image = William Rehnquist Official Portrait as Chief Justice (cropped).jpg
| alt = Rehnquist seated in robes
| caption = Official portrait, 1986
| office = 16th [[Chief Justice of the United States]]
| nominator = [[Ronald Reagan]]
| term_start = September 26, 1986
| term_end = September 3, 2005
| predecessor = [[Warren E. Burger]]
| successor = [[John Roberts]]
| office2 = [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
| nominator2 = [[Richard Nixon]]
| term_start2 = January 7, 1972
| term_end2 = September 26, 1986
| predecessor2 = [[John Marshall Harlan II]]
| successor2 = [[Antonin Scalia]]
| office4 = [[United States Assistant Attorney General]] for the [[Office of Legal Counsel]]
| president4 = Richard Nixon
| term_start4 = January 29, 1969
| term_end4 = December 1971
| predecessor4 = Frank Wozencraft
| successor4 = [[Ralph E. Erickson|Ralph Erickson]]
| birth_name = William Donald Rehnquist
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|10|1}}
| birth_place = [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], U.S.
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|2005|9|3|1924|10|1}}}}
| death_place = [[Arlington County, Virginia]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[Arlington National Cemetery]]
| spouse = {{marriage|Nan Cornell|1953|1991|reason=died}}
| children = 3
| party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| education = [[Stanford University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]], [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])<br>[[Harvard University]] ([[Master of Arts|AM]])
| signature = William H. Rehnquist signature.svg
| allegiance = United States
| branch = {{tree list}}
* [[United States Army]]
** [[United States Army Air Forces| Army Air Forces]]
{{tree list/end}}
| rank = [[Sergeant (United States)|Sergeant]]
| serviceyears = 1943–1946
| module = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=William Rehnquist delivers the opinion of the Court in Braswell v. United States.ogg|title=William Rehnquist's voice|type=speech|description=Rehnquist delivers the opinion of the Court in ''Braswell v. United States''<br />Recorded June 22, 1988}}
| battles = [[World War II]]
| unit =
}}
{{Conservatism US|jurists}}
'''William Hubbs Rehnquist'''{{efn|Pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|ɛ|n|k|w|ɪ|s|t}} {{respell|REN|kwist}}}} (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney who served as the 16th [[chief justice of the United States]] from 1986 until his death in 2005, having previously been an [[Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|associate justice]] from 1972 to 1986. Considered a staunch conservative, Rehnquist favored a conception of [[Federalism in the United States|federalism]] that emphasized the [[Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Tenth Amendment]]'s reservation of powers to the states. Under this view of federalism, [[Supreme Court of the United States|the Court]], for the first time since the 1930s, struck down an act of Congress as exceeding its power under the [[Commerce Clause]] in [[United States v. Lopez]].
Rehnquist grew up in [[Milwaukee]], Wisconsin, and served in the [[U.S. Army Air Forces]] from 1943 to 1946. Afterward, he studied [[political science]] at [[Stanford University]] and [[Harvard University]], then attended [[Stanford Law School]], where he was an editor of the ''[[Stanford Law Review]]'' and graduated first in his class. Rehnquist [[law clerk|clerked]] for Justice [[Robert H. Jackson]] during the Supreme Court's 1952–1953 term, then entered private practice in [[Phoenix, Arizona]]. Rehnquist served as a legal adviser for [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] presidential nominee [[Barry Goldwater]] in the [[1964 U.S. presidential election]], and President [[Richard Nixon]] appointed him [[U.S. Assistant Attorney General]] of the [[Office of Legal Counsel]] in 1969. In that capacity, he played a role in forcing Justice [[Abe Fortas]] to resign for accepting $20,000 from financier [[Louis Wolfson]] before Wolfson was convicted of selling unregistered shares.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=John |title=The Rehnquist Choice |date=February 2002 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-2979-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkBC5CnRcUkC |access-date=April 3, 2022}}</ref>
In 1971, Nixon nominated Rehnquist to succeed Associate Justice [[John Marshall Harlan II]], and the [[U.S. Senate]] confirmed him that year. During his confirmation hearings, Rehnquist was criticized for allegedly opposing the Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' (1954) and allegedly taking part in [[voter suppression]] efforts targeting minorities as a lawyer in the early 1960s.<ref name="PublicAffairs">{{cite book |last1=Jenkins |first1=John A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fShihMsD-V0C |title=The Partisan: The life of William Rehnquist |date=October 2, 2012 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-58648-888-8 |pages=[search "flatly denied" in Google Books link – page numbers are not listed on preview] |access-date=January 3, 2022}}</ref> Historians debate whether he committed [[perjury]] during the hearings by denying his suppression efforts despite at least ten witnesses to the acts,<ref name="PublicAffairs"/> but it is known that at the very least he had defended [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] by private businesses in the early 1960s on the grounds of [[freedom of association]].<ref name="PublicAffairs"/> Rehnquist quickly established himself as the [[Burger Court]]'s most conservative member. In 1986, President [[Ronald Reagan]] nominated Rehnquist to succeed retiring Chief Justice [[Warren Burger]], and the Senate confirmed him.
Rehnquist served as Chief Justice for nearly 19 years, making him the fifth-longest-serving chief justice and the [[List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by time in office|ninth-longest-serving justice]] overall. He became an intellectual and social leader of the [[Rehnquist Court]], earning respect even from the justices who frequently opposed his opinions. As Chief Justice, Rehnquist presided over the [[Impeachment of Bill Clinton|impeachment trial]] of President [[Bill Clinton]]. Rehnquist wrote the majority opinions in ''[[United States v. Lopez]]'' (1995) and ''[[United States v. Morrison]]'' (2000), holding in both cases that Congress had exceeded its power under the Commerce Clause. He dissented in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' (1973) and continued to argue that ''Roe'' had been incorrectly decided in ''[[Planned Parenthood v. Casey]]'' (1992). In ''[[Bush v. Gore]]'', he voted with the court's majority to end the [[2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida|Florida recount]] in the [[2000 U.S. presidential election]].
==Early life and education==
Rehnquist was born William Donald Rehnquist on October 1, 1924,<ref name ="NameChange">{{USCongRec|2006|S5941|date=June 15, 2006}}</ref> and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of [[Shorewood, Wisconsin|Shorewood]]. His father, William Benjamin Rehnquist, was a sales manager at various times for printing equipment, paper, and medical supplies and devices; his mother, Margery (''née'' Peck)—the daughter of a local hardware store owner who also served as an officer and director of a small insurance company—was a local civic activist, as well as a translator and homemaker.<ref>Herman J. Obermayer, Rehnquist: A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States (2009 Simon and Schuster) pp.24–26</ref> His paternal grandparents immigrated from [[Sweden]].<ref name=atlan1>{{cite news|last=Rosen|first=Jeffrey|title=Rehnquist the Great?|work=The Atlantic|year=2005|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/rehnquist-the-great/3820|access-date=May 30, 2010|archive-date=May 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510031242/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/rehnquist-the-great/3820/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="reindeer-twig">It means, in direct translation to English: ''reindeer twig''.</ref>
Rehnquist graduated from [[Shorewood High School (Wisconsin)|Shorewood High School]] in 1942,<ref name="stanford lane">{{Cite magazine |last=Lane |first=Charles |title=Head of the Class |url=http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2005/julaug/features/rehnquist.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080316144855/http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2005/julaug/features/rehnquist.html |archive-date=March 16, 2008 |date= 2005 |issue=July/August |magazine=Stanford Magazine |quote=So, for the brainy kid they had called 'Bugs' back home at suburban Shorewood High School, just outside Milwaukee, weather was a key criterion in selecting a college.}}</ref> during which time he changed his middle name to Hubbs.<ref name ="NameChange"/> He attended [[Kenyon College]], in [[Gambier, Ohio]], for one quarter in the fall of 1942 before enlisting in the [[United States Army Air Forces|U.S. Army Air Forces]], the predecessor of the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]]. He served from 1943 to 1946, mostly in assignments in the United States. He was put into a pre-[[meteorology]] program and assigned to [[Denison University]] until February 1944, when the program was shut down. He served three months at [[Will Rogers Field]] in [[Oklahoma City, Oklahoma|Oklahoma City]], three months in [[Carlsbad, New Mexico]], and then went to [[Hondo, Texas]], for a few months. He was then chosen for another training program, which began at [[Chanute Field]], [[Illinois]], and ended at [[Fort Monmouth|Fort Monmouth, New Jersey]]. The program was designed to teach maintenance and repair of weather instruments. In the summer of 1945, Rehnquist went overseas as a weather observer in North Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=50&GA=94&DocTypeId=HR&DocNum=622&GAID=8&LegID=21862&SpecSess=&Session=|title=Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HR0622|website=www.ilga.gov|access-date=October 16, 2016|archive-date=October 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161016193040/http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=50&GA=94&DocTypeId=HR&DocNum=622&GAID=8&LegID=21862&SpecSess=&Session=|url-status=live}}</ref> He was honorably discharged with the rank of [[sergeant]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist {{!}} University of Arizona Law |url=https://law.arizona.edu/faculty-research/centers-research/rehnquist-center/chief-justice-william-h-rehnquist |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=law.arizona.edu |language=en}}</ref>
After leaving the military in 1946, Rehnquist attended Stanford University with financial assistance from the [[G.I. Bill]].<ref name="supreme court">{{cite book|title=The United States Supreme Court|author=Christopher L. Tomlins|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |year=2005|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatessupr00toml|url-access=registration|access-date=October 21, 2008|isbn=978-0-618-32969-4}}</ref> He graduated in 1948 with [[Bachelor of Arts]] and [[Master of Arts]] degrees in [[political science]] and was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and [[Pi Sigma Alpha]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Notable Members – Pi Sigma Alpha |url=https://pisigmaalpha.org/notable-members/ |website=pisigmaalpha.org}}</ref> He did graduate study in government at [[Harvard University]], where he received another Master of Arts in 1950. He then returned to Stanford to attend the [[Stanford Law School]], where he was an editor on the ''[[Stanford Law Review]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/mastheads/volume-4-1951-1952/ | title=Volume 04 (1951-1952) }}</ref> Rehnquist was strongly conservative from an early age and wrote that he "hated" liberal Justice [[Hugo Black]] in his diary at Stanford.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jenkins |first1=John A. |title=The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist|date=October 2, 2012 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-58648-887-1 |pages=16–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hq2d0m25FokC |access-date=April 23, 2022}}</ref> He graduated in 1952 ranked first in his class with a [[Bachelor of Laws]].<ref name="supreme court"/> Rehnquist was in the same class at Stanford Law as [[Sandra Day O'Connor]], with whom he would later serve on the Supreme Court. They briefly dated during law school,<ref name="Biskupic-SDO">[[Joan Biskupic|Biskupic, Joan]]. ''Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court became its most influential justice''. New York: Harper Collins, 2005</ref> and Rehnquist proposed marriage to her. O'Connor declined as she was by then dating her future husband (this was not publicly known until 2018).<ref name=npr-oconnor-rehnquist>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/10/31/662293127/a-supreme-marriage-proposal |title=O'Connor, Rehnquist And A Supreme Marriage Proposal |last=Totenburg |first=Nina |work=NPR |date=October 31, 2018 |access-date=October 31, 2018 |archive-date=October 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181031110717/https://www.npr.org/2018/10/31/662293127/a-supreme-marriage-proposal |url-status=live }}</ref> Rehnquist married Nan Cornell in 1953.
==Law clerk at the Supreme Court==
After law school, Rehnquist served as a [[law clerk]] for U.S. Supreme Court justice [[Robert H. Jackson]] from 1952 to 1953.<ref name="BiskupicSept4">{{Cite web|last=Biskupic |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Biskupic |title=Rehnquist left Supreme Court with conservative legacy |date=September 4, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022031732/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/supremecourtjustices/2005-09-04-rehnquist-legacy_x.htm |archive-date=October 22, 2012 |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/supremecourtjustices/2005-09-04-rehnquist-legacy_x.htm |access-date=April 29, 2023 |website=USA Today}}</ref> While clerking for Jackson, he wrote a memorandum arguing against federal court-ordered [[School integration in the United States|school desegregation]] while the Court was considering the landmark case ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', which was decided in 1954. Rehnquist's 1952 memo, "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases", defended the [[Separate but equal|separate-but-equal]] doctrine. In the memo, Rehnquist wrote:
{{blockquote|To the argument that a majority may not deprive a minority of its constitutional right, the answer must be made that while this is sound in theory, in the long run it is the majority who will determine what the constitutional rights of the minority are [...] I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by "liberal" colleagues, but I think ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' was right and should be reaffirmed.<ref name="Rehnquist-RandomThought">{{cite web |url=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST/pdf/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST-4-16-6.pdf |author=William Rehnquist |title=A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases |access-date=November 14, 2017 |archive-date=November 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101135842/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST/pdf/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST-4-16-6.pdf |url-status=live }}, S. Hrg. 99-1067, Hearings Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States (July 29–31, and August 1, 1986).</ref>}}
In both his 1971 [[United States Senate]] [[Nomination and confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States|confirmation hearing]] for [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Associate Justice]] and his 1986 hearing for [[Chief justice of the United States|Chief Justice]], Rehnquist testified that the memorandum reflected Jackson's views rather than his own. Rehnquist said, "I believe that the memorandum was prepared by me as a statement of Justice Jackson's tentative views for his own use."<ref name="1971 confirm">1971 confirmation hearings.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}<!-- NOTE: A MEETING NAME/DATE IS NOT A PUBLISHED, RELIABLE SOURCE. --></ref> Jackson's longtime secretary and confidante Elsie Douglas said during Rehnquist's 1986 hearings that his allegation was "a smear of a great man, for whom I served as secretary for many years. Justice Jackson did not ask law clerks to express his views. He expressed his own and they expressed theirs. That is what happened in this instance."<ref name="Sarbanes">{{cite web |title=132 Cong. Rec. 23548 (Speech of Senator Paul Sarbanes) |website=[[Library of Congress]] |year=1986 |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/law/nominations/rehnquist-cj/statements.pdf |access-date=December 29, 2017 |archive-date=October 1, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001140331/http://www.loc.gov/rr/law/nominations/rehnquist-cj/statements.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> But Justices [[William O. Douglas|Douglas]]'s and [[Felix Frankfurter|Frankfurter]]'s papers indicate that Jackson voted for ''Brown'' in 1954 only after changing his mind.<ref name="Schwartz-Decision">{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5cUCl4hSWUC&pg=PA96 |title=Decision: How the Supreme Court Decides Cases |date=1996 |page=96 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-511800-1 |language=en}}</ref>
At his 1986 hearing for chief justice, Rehnquist tried to further distance himself from the 1952 memo, saying, "The bald statement that Plessy was right and should be reaffirmed was not an accurate reflection of my own views at the time."<ref name="Liptak">{{Cite news|last=Liptak|first=Adam|date=September 11, 2005|title=The Memo That Rehnquist Wrote and Had to Disown |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/weekinreview/the-memo-that-rehnquist-wrote-and-had-to-disown.html|access-date=April 29, 2023}}</ref> But he acknowledged defending ''Plessy'' in arguments with fellow law clerks.<ref name="Canellos">{{Cite news |last=Canellos |first=Peter S. |title=Memos may not hold Roberts's opinions |work=Boston.com |date=August 23, 2005 |url=http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/23/memos_may_not_hold_robertss_opinions/ |access-date=2023-02-20}}</ref>
Several commentators have concluded that the memo reflected Rehnquist's own views, not Jackson's.<ref name="Schwartz">{{Cite journal|last=Schwartz|first=Bernard|title=Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice Jackson, and the "Brown" Case |journal=Supreme Court Review |volume=1988 |issue=1988 |pages=245–267|year=1988|issn=0081-9557|jstor=3109626|doi=10.1086/scr.1988.3109626|s2cid=147205671}}</ref><ref name="Kluger">{{cite book|last=Kluger|first=Richard|title=Simple Justice: The History of ''Brown v. Board of Education'' and Black America's Struggle for Equality|url=https://archive.org/details/simplejusticehis00klug|url-access=registration|year=1976|___location=note 4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/simplejusticehis00klug/page/606 606]|isbn=978-0-394-47289-8 }}</ref> A biography of Jackson corroborates this, stating that Jackson instructed his clerks to express their views, not his.<ref name="mr right">{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,961645,00.html|title=Reagan's Mr. Right|magazine=TIME|date=June 30, 1986|access-date=August 9, 2021|archive-date=August 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809174635/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,961645,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Further corroboration is found in a 2012 ''Boston College Law Review'' article that analyzes a 1955 letter to Frankfurter that criticized Jackson.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Snyder|first1=Brad|last2=Barrett|first2=John Q.|title=Rehnquist's Missing Letter: A Former Law Clerk's 1955 Thoughts on Justice Jackson and Brown|journal=The Boston College Law Review|date=2012|volume=53|issue=2|pages=631–660|url=http://bclawreview.org/review/53_2/05_snyder_barrett|access-date=September 17, 2014|archive-date=July 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170717120920/http://bclawreview.org/review/53_2/05_snyder_barrett/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In any event, while serving on the Supreme Court, Rehnquist made no effort to reverse or undermine ''Brown'' and often relied on it as precedent.<ref>[https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST/pdf/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST-4-13-1.pdf "Cases where Justice Rehnquist has cited Brown v. Board of Education in support of a proposition"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321144330/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST/pdf/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST-4-13-1.pdf |date=March 21, 2017 }}, S. Hrg. 99-1067, Hearings Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Nomination of Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist to be Chief Justice of the United States (July 29, 30, 31, and August 1, 1986).</ref><ref name="Rosen-TheGreat">{{cite news |first=Jeffery |last=Rosen |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200504/rosen/2 |title=Rehnquist the Great? |work=Atlantic Monthly |date=April 2005 |access-date=March 12, 2017 |archive-date=January 4, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104034014/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200504/rosen/2 |url-status=live }} ("Rehnquist ultimately embraced the Warren Court's ''Brown'' decision, and after he joined the Court he made no attempt to dismantle the civil-rights revolution, as political opponents feared he would").</ref> In 1985, he said there was a "perfectly reasonable" argument against ''Brown'' and in favor of ''Plessy'', even though he now saw ''Brown'' as correct.<ref name="mr right" />
In a memorandum to Jackson about ''[[Terry v. Adams]]'',<ref name="Terry v. Adams">{{Cite web|title=''Terry v. Adams'', 345 U.S. 461 (1953) |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/345/461.html |access-date=April 29, 2023 |website=Findlaw |language=en-US}}</ref> which involved the right of blacks to vote in Texas primaries where a non-binding white-only pre-election was being used to preselect the winner before the actual primary, Rehnquist wrote:
{{blockquote|The Constitution does not prevent the majority from banding together, nor does it attain success in the effort. It is about time the Court faced the fact that the white people of the south do not like the colored people. The Constitution restrains them from effecting this dislike through state action, but it most assuredly did not appoint the Court as a sociological watchdog to rear up every time private discrimination raises its admittedly ugly head.<ref name="stanford lane"/>}}
In another memorandum to Jackson about the same case, Rehnquist wrote:
{{blockquote|several of the [Yale law professor Fred] Rodell school of thought among the clerks began screaming as soon as they saw this that 'Now we can show those damn southerners, etc.' [...] I take a dim view of this pathological search for discrimination [...] and as a result I now have something of a mental block against the case.<ref name="Yarbrough">{{Cite book|last=Yarbrough|first=Tinsley E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8DX12_NJ2AC&pg=RA2-PA2| title=The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution |page=2 |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535602-1|language=en}}</ref>}}
Nevertheless, Rehnquist recommended to Jackson that the Supreme Court should agree to hear ''Terry''.
==Private practice==
After his Supreme Court clerkship, Rehnquist entered private practice in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], [[Arizona]], where he worked from 1953 to 1969. He began his legal work in the firm of [[Denison Kitchel]], subsequently serving as the national manager of [[Barry M. Goldwater]]'s [[U.S. presidential election, 1964|1964]] presidential campaign. Prominent clients included [[Jim Hensley]], [[John McCain]]'s future father-in-law.<ref>{{cite book|title=McCain: The Essential Guide to the Republican Nominee: His Character, His Career and Where He Stands|url=https://archive.org/details/mccainessentialg0000silv|url-access=registration|author=Mark Silva|page=[https://archive.org/details/mccainessentialg0000silv/page/44 44]|isbn=978-1-60078-196-4|year=2008|publisher=Triumph Books }}</ref> During these years, Rehnquist was active in the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] and served as a legal advisor under Kitchel to Goldwater's campaign.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-24-me-kitchel24-story.html|title=Denison Kitchel, 94; Ran Goldwater's Presidential Bid|date=October 24, 2002|first=Dennis|last=McLellan|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=June 2, 2013|archive-date=November 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106065221/http://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/24/local/me-kitchel24|url-status=live}}</ref> He collaborated with [[Harry Jaffa]] on Goldwater's speeches.<ref>[[David Gordon (philosopher)|Gordon, David]] (Fall 2001). [https://mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=189 "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130219201752/http://www.mises.org/misesreview_detail.aspx?control=189 |date=February 19, 2013 }}. ''[[Mises Institute|Mises Review]]''.</ref>
During both his 1971 hearing for associate justice and his 1986 hearing for chief justice, several people came forward to allege that Rehnquist had participated in [[Operation Eagle Eye (United States)|Operation Eagle Eye]], a Republican Party [[Voter suppression in the United States|voter suppression]] operation in the early 1960s in Arizona to challenge minority voters.<ref name="Roddy">Roddy, Dennis (December 2, 2000). [http://www.commondreams.org/views/120200-101.htm "Just Our Bill"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522121736/http://www.commondreams.org/views/120200-101.htm |date=May 22, 2010 }}. ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''.</ref> Rehnquist denied the charges, and Vincent Maggiore, then chairman of the Phoenix-area Democratic Party, said he had never heard any negative reports about Rehnquist's [[Election Day (United States)|Election Day]] activities. "All of these things", Maggiore said, "would have come through me."<ref name="Wilentz">{{Cite magazine |date=August 11, 1986 |last=Wilentz |first=Amy |title=Through the Wringer |magazine=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,962033,00.html |access-date=2023-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022192437/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962033,00.html |archive-date=October 22, 2007 }}</ref>
==Justice Department==
When [[Richard Nixon]] was elected [[President of the United States|president]] in [[U.S. presidential election, 1968|1968]], Rehnquist returned to work in Washington. He served as [[United States Assistant Attorney General|Assistant Attorney General]] of the [[Office of Legal Counsel]] from 1969 to 1971.<ref name="cornell-bio">{{cite web |url=https://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/rehnquist.bio.html |title=LII: US Supreme Court: Justice Rehnquist |publisher=Supct.law.cornell.edu |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=September 26, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926095132/http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/rehnquist.bio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In this role, he served as the chief lawyer to [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[John N. Mitchell|John Mitchell]]. Nixon mistakenly called him "Renchburg" in several of the tapes of [[Oval Office]] conversations revealed during the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]] investigations.<ref name="Renchburg">{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E1DF1331F937A35752C1A9679C8B63 |title=Renchburg's the One! |work=[[The New York Times]] |author=Jeffrey Rosen |date=November 4, 2001 |access-date=September 19, 2008}}</ref>
Rehnquist played a role in the investigation of Justice [[Abe Fortas]] for accepting $20,000 from [[Louis Wolfson]], a financier under investigation by the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]].<ref name="The Rehnquist Choice">{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=John |title=The Rehnquist Choice |date=February 2002 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-2979-1 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkBC5CnRcUkC |access-date=June 30, 2022}}</ref> Although other justices had made similar arrangements, Nixon saw the Wolfson payment as a political opportunity to cement a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.<ref name="The Rehnquist Choice"/> Nixon wanted the Justice Department to investigate Fortas but was unsure if this was legal, as there was no precedent for such an activity.<ref name="google.com">{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=John |title=The Rehnquist Choice |date=February 2002 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-2979-1 |page=6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkBC5CnRcUkC |access-date=June 30, 2022}}</ref> Rehnquist sent Attorney General [[John N. Mitchell]] a memo arguing that an investigation would not violate the [[separation of powers]].<ref name="google.com"/> Rehnquist did not handle the direct investigation, but was told by Mitchell to "assume the most damaging set of inferences about the case were true" and "determine what action the Justice Department could take."<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=John |title=The Rehnquist Choice |date=February 2002 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-2979-1 |page=7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkBC5CnRcUkC |access-date=June 30, 2022}}</ref> The worst inference Rehnquist could draw was that Fortas had somehow intervened in the prosecution of Wolfson, which, according to former White House Counsel John W. Dean, was untrue.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Based on this false accusation, Rehnquist argued that the Justice Department could investigate Fortas.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> After being investigated by Mitchell, who threatened to also investigate his wife, Fortas resigned.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=John |title=The Rehnquist Choice |date=February 2002 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-7432-2979-1 |page=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkBC5CnRcUkC |access-date=June 30, 2022}}</ref>
Because he was well-placed in the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], many suspected Rehnquist could have been the source known as [[Deep Throat (Watergate)|Deep Throat]] during the [[Watergate scandal]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thehill.com/under-the-dome/was-rehnquist-deep-throat-2005-02-23.html |title=Was Rehnquist 'Deep Throat'? |publisher=Thehill.com |access-date=September 19, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080114002203/http://thehill.com/under-the-dome/was-rehnquist-deep-throat-2005-02-23.html |archive-date=January 14, 2008 }}</ref> Once [[Bob Woodward]] revealed on May 31, 2005, that [[W. Mark Felt]] was [[Deep Throat (Watergate)|Deep Throat]], this speculation ended.
==Associate Justice==
[[File:William Rehnquist official portrait 1972.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Portrait of Rehnquist as an associate justice in 1972]]
===Nomination and confirmation as associate justice===
On October 21, 1971, President Nixon nominated Rehnquist as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, to succeed [[John Marshall Harlan II]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nixon|first=Richard|title=Address to the Nation Announcing Intention To Nominate Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist To Be Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=3196|work=The American Presidency Project|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara|date=October 21, 1971|access-date=October 25, 2022|archive-date=March 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310164624/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=3196|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Henry Kissinger]] initially proposed Rehnquist for the position to presidential advisor [[H.R. Haldeman]] and asked, "Rehnquist is pretty far right, isn't he?" Haldeman responded, "Oh, Christ! He's way to the right of Buchanan",<ref>Perlstein, Rick (2008), p. 605</ref> referring to then-presidential advisor [[Patrick Buchanan]].
Rehnquist's confirmation hearings before the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] took place in early November 1971.<ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR">{{cite web| last1=McMillion| first1=Barry J.| last2=Rutkus| first2=Denis Steven| date=July 6, 2018| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2017: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| publisher=Congressional Research Service| ___location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=March 9, 2022}}</ref><ref name=RL33225>{{cite report| last=McMillion| first=Barry J.| date= January 28, 2022| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| publisher=Congressional Research Service| ___location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> In addition to answering questions about school desegregation and racial discrimination in voting, Rehnquist was asked about his views on the extent of presidential power, the [[Vietnam War]], the [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-war movement]] and law enforcement [[surveillance methods]].<ref>{{cite journal| journal=Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development| volume=21| issue=2| date=Spring 2007| title=The "Federalism Five" as Supreme Court Nominees, 1971-1991| first=John Q.| last=Barrett| page=486| url= https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1091&context=jcred| via=St. John's Law Scholarship Repository| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> On November 23, 1971, the committee voted 12–4 to send the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation.<ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR"/><ref name=RL33225/>
On December 10, 1971, the Senate first voted 52–42 against a [[cloture]] motion that would have allowed the Senate to end debate on Rehnquist's nomination and vote on whether to confirm him.<ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR"/><ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. Senate: Cloture Motions - 92nd Congress |url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/cloture/92.htm |website=www.senate.gov |publisher=United States Senate |access-date=March 10, 2022}}</ref> The Senate then voted 22–70 to reject a motion to postpone consideration of his confirmation until July 18, 1972.<ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR"/> Later that day, the Senate voted 68–26 to confirm Rehnquist,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate|date=December 10, 1971|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=117|issue=35|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=46197|edition=Bound|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt35/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1971-pt35-3-2.pdf|access-date=February 7, 2022}}</ref><ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR"/><ref name=SCnominations>{{cite web| title=Supreme Court Nominations (1789-Present)| url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm| publisher=United States Senate| ___location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> and he took the [[Oath of office#Federal judiciary oaths|judicial oath of office]] on January 7, 1972.<ref name=SCOTUSjustices>{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| title= Justices 1789 to Present| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| ___location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref>
There were two Supreme Court vacancies in the fall of 1971. The other was filled by [[Lewis F. Powell Jr.]], who took office on the same day as Rehnquist to replace [[Hugo Black]].<ref name=SCnominations/><ref name=SCOTUSjustices/>
===Tenure as associate justice===
On the Court, Rehnquist promptly established himself as Nixon's most conservative appointee, taking a narrow view of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] and a broad view of state power in domestic policy. He almost always voted "with the prosecution in criminal cases, with business in antitrust cases, with employers in labor cases, and with the government in speech cases."<ref name="woodward 221">Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, ''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''. 1979. Simon and Schuster. Page 221.</ref> Rehnquist was often a lone dissenter in cases early on, but his views later often became the Court's majority view.<ref name="supreme court"/>
====Federalism====
For years, Rehnquist was determined to keep cases involving individual rights in state courts out of federal reach.<ref name="woodward 221"/><ref name="woodward 222">Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, ''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''. 1979. Simon and Schuster. Page 222.</ref> In ''[[National League of Cities v. Usery]]'' (1977), his majority opinion invalidated a federal law extending [[minimum wage]] and maximum hours provisions to state and local government employees.<ref name="Friedman 114">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 114.</ref> Rehnquist wrote, "this exercise of congressional authority does not comport with the federal system of government embodied in the Constitution."<ref name="Friedman 114" />
====Equal protection, civil rights, and abortion====
Rehnquist rejected a broad view of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1952, while clerking for Jackson, Rehnquist wrote a memorandum concluding that "''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' was right and should be re-affirmed. If the Fourteenth Amendment did not enact Spencer's [[Social Statics]], it just as surely did not enact Myrddahl's American Dilemma" (''[[An American Dilemma]]''), by which he meant that the Court should not "read its own sociological views into the Constitution."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/print/sources_document7.html|title=A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases|website=[[PBS]]|access-date=September 18, 2017|archive-date=October 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161016194354/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/print/sources_document7.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Rehnquist believed the Fourteenth Amendment was meant only as a solution to the problems of slavery, and was not to be applied to abortion rights or prisoner's rights.<ref name="woodward 221"/><ref name="woodward 411">Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, ''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''. 1979. Simon and Schuster. Page 411.</ref> He believed the Court "had no business reflecting society's changing and expanding values" and that this was Congress's ___domain.<ref name="woodward 221"/> Rehnquist tried to weave his view of the Amendment into his opinion for ''Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer'', but the other justices rejected it.<ref name="woodward 411"/> He later extended what he said he saw as the Amendment's scope, writing in ''Trimble v. Gordon'', "except in the area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply—classifications based on race or on national origin".<ref name="trimble">{{Cite web|title=''Trimble v. Gordon'', 430 U.S. 762 (1977) |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/430/762.html |access-date=2023-02-20 |website=Findlaw |language=en-US}}</ref> During the Burger Court's deliberations over ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'', Rehnquist promoted his view that courts' jurisdiction does not apply to [[abortion]].<ref name="woodward 235">Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, ''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''. 1979. Simon and Schuster. Page 235.</ref>
Rehnquist voted against the expansion of [[School integration in the United States|school desegregation]] plans and the establishment of legalized abortions, dissenting in ''Roe v. Wade''. He expressed his views about the [[Equal Protection Clause]] in cases like ''Trimble v. Gordon'':<ref name="trimble" />
{{blockquote|Unfortunately, more than a century of decisions under this Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment have produced ... a syndrome wherein this Court seems to regard the Equal Protection Clause as a cat-o'-nine-tails to be kept in the judicial closet as a threat to legislatures which may, in the view of the judiciary, get out of hand and pass "arbitrary", "illogical", or "unreasonable" laws. Except in the area of the law in which the Framers obviously meant it to apply—classifications based on race or on national origin, the first cousin of race—the Court's decisions can fairly be described as an endless tinkering with legislative judgments, a series of conclusions unsupported by any central guiding principle.}}
====Other issues====
Rehnquist consistently defended state-sanctioned [[school prayer|prayer in public schools]].<ref name="mr right"/> He held a restrictive view of criminals' and prisoners' rights and believed [[capital punishment]] to be constitutional.<ref name="Friedman 124">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 124.</ref> He supported the view that the Fourth Amendment permitted a warrantless search incident to a valid arrest.<ref name="Friedman 122">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 122.</ref>
In ''[[Nixon v. Administrator of General Services]]'' (1977), Rehnquist dissented from a decision upholding the constitutionality of an act that gave a federal agency administrator certain authority over former President Nixon's presidential papers and tape recordings.<ref name="Friedman 113">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 113.</ref> He dissented solely on the ground that the law was "a clear violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers".<ref name="Friedman 114"/><ref name="Friedman 113"/>
During oral argument in ''[[Duren v. Missouri]]'' (1978), the Court faced a challenge to laws and practices that made jury duty voluntary for women in that state. At the end of [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]'s oral presentation, Rehnquist asked her, "You will not settle for putting [[Susan B. Anthony dollar|Susan B. Anthony on the new dollar]], then?"<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082300903_pf.html |title=Redefining Fair With a Simple Careful Assault. Step-by-Step Strategy Produced Strides for Equal Protection |date=July 19, 1993 |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=David |last=Von Drehle |access-date=September 18, 2017 |archive-date=February 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225021733/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082300903_pf.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Rehnquist wrote the majority opinion in ''[[Diamond v. Diehr]]'', {{ussc|450|175|1981}}, which began a gradual trend toward overturning the ban on software patents in the United States first established in ''[[Parker v. Flook]]'', {{ussc|437|584|1978}}. In ''[[Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.]]'', pertaining to [[video cassette recorder]]s such as the Betamax system, [[John Paul Stevens]] wrote an opinion providing a broad [[fair use]] doctrine while Rehnquist joined the dissent supporting stronger copyrights. In ''[[Eldred v. Ashcroft]]'', {{ussc|537|186|2003}}, Rehnquist was in the majority favoring the copyright holders, with Stevens and [[Stephen Breyer]] dissenting in favor of a narrower construction of copyright law.
====View of the rational basis test====
[[Harvard University]] law professor David Shapiro wrote that as an associate justice, Rehnquist disliked even minimal inquiries into legislative objectives except in the areas of race, national origin, and infringement of specific constitutional guarantees.<ref name="Friedman 115">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 115.</ref> For Rehnquist, the [[Rational basis review|rational basis test]] was not a standard for weighing the interests of the government against the individual but a label to describe a preordained result.<ref name="Friedman 115"/> In 1978, Shapiro pointed out that Rehnquist had avoided joining rational basis determinations for years, except in one case, ''[[Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld]]''.<ref name="Friedman 115"/> In ''[[Trimble v. Gordon]]'', Rehnquist eschewed the majority's approach to equal protection, writing in dissent that the state's distinction should be sustained because it was not "mindless and patently irrational".<ref name="Friedman 115"/> (The Court struck down an Illinois law allowing illegitimate children to inherit by intestate succession only from their mothers.) Shapiro wrote that Rehnquist seemed content to find a sufficient relationship between a challenged classification and perceived governmental interests "no matter how tenuous or speculative that relationship might be".<ref name="Friedman 115" /><ref name="Friedman 116">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Page 116.</ref>
A practical result of Rehnquist's view of rational basis can be seen in ''[[Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur]]'', wherein the Court's majority struck down a school board rule that required every pregnant teacher to take unpaid maternity leave beginning five months before the expected birth of her child.<ref name="Friedman 116" /> Lewis Powell had written an opinion resting on the ground that the school board rule was too inclusive to survive equal protection analysis.<ref name="Friedman 116" /> In dissent, Rehnquist attacked Powell's opinion, saying:
{{blockquote|If legislative bodies are to be permitted to draw a line anywhere short of the delivery room, I can find no judicial standard of measurement which says the ones drawn here were invalid.<ref name="Friedman 116"/>}}
Shapiro writes that Rehnquist's opinion implied:
{{blockquote|That there is no constitutionally significant difference between a classification that encompasses virtually no one outside the scope of its purpose and a classification so overinclusive that the vast majority of those falling within are beyond its intended scope.<ref name="Friedman 116"/>}}
Rehnquist's dissent in ''[[United States Department of Agriculture v. Murry]]'' illuminates his view that a classification should pass muster under the rational basis test so long as that classification is not entirely counterproductive with respect to the purposes of the legislation in which it is contained.<ref name="Friedman 116-117">Friedman, Leon. ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'', Volume V. Chelsea House Publishers. 1978. Pages 116–117.</ref> Shapiro alleges that Rehnquist's stance "makes rational basis a virtual nullity".<ref name="Friedman 116"/>
====Relations on the Court====
Rehnquist quickly became well-liked and developed friendly personal relations with his colleagues, even with ideological opposites. [[William J. Brennan Jr.]] "startled one acquaintance by informing him that 'Bill Rehnquist is my best friend up here.'"<ref name="Garrow">David Garrow, "The Rehnquist Reins", ''New York Times'', October 6, 1996.</ref> Rehnquist and [[William O. Douglas]] bonded over a shared iconoclasm and love of the West.<ref name="Charlie Rose">Undated 2003–04 ''[[Charlie Rose Show]]'' interview with Rehnquist.</ref> ''[[The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court]]'' claims that the Court's "liberals found it hard not to like the good-natured, thoughtful Rehnquist", despite finding his legal philosophy "extreme",<ref name="woodward 267">Woodward & Armstrong, The Brethren 267 (2005) (1979 ed. at __).</ref> and that [[Potter Stewart]] regarded Rehnquist as "excellent" and "a "team player, a part of the group in the center of the court, even though he usually ended up in the conservative bloc".<ref name="woodward 498">''The Brethren'', 2005 ed. at 498 (1979 ed. at ___).</ref>
Since Rehnquist's first years on the Supreme Court, other justices criticized what they saw as his "willingness to cut corners to reach a conservative result", "gloss[ing] over inconsistencies of logic or fact" or distinguishing indistinct cases to reach their destination.<ref name="woodward 268&499">''The Brethren'', 2005 ed. at 268, 499 (1979 ed. at 407–8, __)</ref><ref name="Friedman 121">Leon Friedman, ''The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions'' (1978), page 121.</ref> In ''[[Jefferson v. Hackney]]'', for example, Douglas and [[Thurgood Marshall]] charged that Rehnquist's opinion "misrepresented the legislative history"<ref name="woodward 268">''The Brethren'', 2005 ed. at 268 (1979 ed. at 222).</ref> of a federal welfare program.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jefferson v. Hackney, 406 U.S. 535 (1972)|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/406/535/|access-date=2023-02-20|website=Justia Law|language=en}}</ref> Rehnquist did not correct what ''The Brethren'' characterizes as an "outright misstatement, ... [and thus] publish[ed] an opinion that twisted the facts".<ref name="woodward 268"/> His "misuse" of precedents in another case "shocked" Stevens.<ref name="woodward 222&408">''The Brethren'', 2005 ed. at __ (1979 ed. at 222, 408.</ref> For his part, Rehnquist was often "contemptuous of Brennan's opinions", seeing them as "bending the facts or law to suit his purposes".<ref name="woodward 499">''The Brethren'', 2005 ed. at 499.</ref> Rehnquist had a tense relationship with Marshall, who sometimes accused him of bigotry.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stern |first1=Seth |last2=Wermiel |first2=Stephen |title=Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion |year=2013 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-1912-2 |page=475}}</ref>
Rehnquist usually voted with Chief Justice [[Warren Burger]],<ref name="woodward 269">''The Brethren'', 2005 ed. at __ (1979 ed. at 269).</ref> and, recognizing "the importance of his relationship with Burger", often went along to get along, joining Burger's majority opinions even when he disagreed with them, and, in important cases, "tr[ying] to straighten him out".<ref name="woodward 499"/> Even so, being reluctant to compromise, Rehnquist was the most frequent sole dissenter during the [[Burger Court]], garnering the nickname "the Lone Ranger".<ref name="mr right"/>
==Chief Justice==
{{Further|Rehnquist Court}}
[[File:Rhenswear.jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|William Rehnquist (left) takes the oath as Chief Justice from retiring [[Warren Burger]] at the [[White House]] in 1986, as his wife, Natalie, holds a Bible, President [[Ronald Reagan]] and Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] look on]]
===Nomination and confirmation as chief justice===
When Burger retired in 1986, President [[Ronald Reagan]] nominated Rehnquist for chief justice. Although Rehnquist was far more conservative than Burger,<ref name="Eisler">Eisler, Kim Isaac (1993). ''A Justice for All: William J. Brennan, Jr., and the decisions that transformed America''. p. 272. New York: Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|0-671-76787-9}}</ref> "his colleagues were unanimously pleased and supportive", even his "ideological opposites".<ref name="Garrow"/> The nomination "was met with 'genuine enthusiasm on the part of not only his colleagues on the Court but others who served the Court in a staff capacity and some of the relatively lowly paid individuals at the Court. There was almost a unanimous feeling of joy.'"<ref name="Garrow"/> Thurgood Marshall later called him "a great chief justice".<ref name="Rosen-TheGreat"/>
The nomination was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 20, 1986. This was the first confirmation hearing on a chief justice nominee to be opened to gavel-to-gavel television coverage.<ref name=RL32821>{{cite report| title=The Chief Justice of the United States: Responsibilities of the Office and Process for Appointment| date=March 17, 2005| last1=Rutkus| first1=Denis Steven| last2=Tong| first2=Lorraine H. Tong| url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs7287/| publisher=Congressional Research Service| ___location=Washington, D.C.| via=University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> During the hearing, Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] challenged Rehnquist on his unwitting ownership of property that had a [[restrictive covenant]] against sale to Jews<ref name="Oser">Alan S. Oser, [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DC1639F932A3575BC0A960948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all "Unenforceable Covenants are in Many Deeds"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022202302/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DC1639F932A3575BC0A960948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |date=October 22, 2007 }}, ''New York Times'' (August 1, 1986).
<blockquote>Mr. Rehnquist has said he was unaware of discriminatory restrictions on properties he bought in Arizona and [[Vermont]], and officials in those states said today that he had never even been required to sign the deeds that contained the restrictions.... He told the committee he would act quickly to get rid of the covenants. The restriction on the Vermont property prohibits the lease or sale of the property to "members of the Hebrew race" ... The discriminatory language appears on the first page of the single-spaced document in the middle of a long paragraph filled with unrelated language regarding sewers and the construction of a mailbox.</blockquote></ref> (such covenants were held to be unenforceable under the 1948 Supreme Court case ''[[Shelley v. Kraemer]]''). Along with senators [[Joe Biden]] and [[Howard Metzenbaum]], Kennedy called Rehnquist "insensitive to minorities and women's rights while on the court."<ref name=WAPO91886>{{cite news| title=Rehnquist Confirmed In 65-33 Senate Vote| first=Al| last=Kamen| date=September 18, 1986| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/09/18/rehnquist-confirmed-in-65-33-senate-vote/a1d9c510-e342-4452-a18c-52aa34689b96/| newspaper=The Washington Post| access-date=February 19, 2022}}</ref> Rehnquist also drew criticism for his membership in the Washington, D.C. [[Alfalfa Club]], which at the time did not allow women to join.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Taylor Jr |first=Stuart |date=August 1, 1986 |title=President Asserts He Will Withhold Rehnquist Memos |language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/01/us/president-asserts-he-will-withhold-rehnquist-memos.html |access-date=2023-02-20|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> On August 14, the Judiciary Committee voted 13–5 to report the nomination to the Senate with a favorable recommendation.<ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR"/>
Despite various Democrats' efforts to defeat the nomination, the Senate confirmed Rehnquist on September 17. After cloture was invoked in a 68–31 vote,<ref name="CRS2018BJMDSR"/> Rehnquist was confirmed in a 65–33 vote (49 Republicans and 16 Democrats voted in favor; 31 Democrats and two Republicans voted against).<ref name=WAPO91886/><ref>{{cite journal|title=Senate|date=September 17, 1986|journal=[[Congressional Record]]|volume=132|issue=17|publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|U.S. Government Printing Office]]|page=23803|edition=Bound|url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1986-pt17/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1986-pt17-1-2.pdf|access-date=July 8, 2025}}</ref> He took office on September 26, becoming the first person since [[Harlan F. Stone]] to serve as both an associate justice and chief justice. Rehnquist's associate justice successor, [[Antonin Scalia]], was sworn into office that same day.<ref name=RL32821/>
Rehnquist had no prior experience as a judge upon his appointment to the Court. His only experience in presiding over a case at the trial level was in 1984, when Judge D. Dortch Warriner invited him to preside over a civil case, ''Julian D. Heislup, Sr. and Linda L. Dixon, Appellees, v. Town of Colonial Beach, Virginia, et al.'' Exercising the authority of a Supreme Court justice to preside over lower court proceedings, he oversaw the jury trial involving allegations that police department employees' civil rights were violated when they testified in a matter involving alleged police brutality against a teenage boy.<ref>{{Cite web|agency=Associated Press|date=January 10, 1999|title=Chief justice has presided over only one other trial|url=https://www.deseret.com/1999/1/10/19426101/chief-justice-has-presided-over-only-one-other-trial|access-date=October 29, 2020|website=Deseret News|language=en|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112024433/https://www.deseret.com/1999/1/10/19426101/chief-justice-has-presided-over-only-one-other-trial|url-status=live}}</ref> Rehnquist ruled for the plaintiffs in a number of motions, allowing the case to go to the jury. When the jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded damages, the defendants appealed. The appeal was argued before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 4, 1986–16 days before Rehnquist was nominated as chief justice. Forty-three days after Rehnquist was sworn in as chief justice, the Fourth Circuit reversed the judgment, overruling Rehnquist, and concluding that there was insufficient evidence to have sent the matter to the jury.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Julian D. Heislup, Sr. and Linda L. Dixon, Appellees, v. Town of Colonial Beach, Virginia; Bernard George Denson, individually and in Official Capacity As Member of Councilof Town of Colonial Beach; Gloria T. Fenwick, Individuallyand in Official Capacity As Member of Council of Town Ofcolonial Beach; Edna C. Sydnor, Individually and Inofficial Capacity As Member of Council of Town of Colonialbeach; Thomas B. Rogers, Individually and in Officialcapacity As Member of Council of Town of Colonial Beach;john A. Anderson, Individually and in Official Capacity Aschief of Police of Town of Colonial Beach; Marty J. Perry, individually and in Official Capacity As Police Officer Withtown of Colonial Beach and Leroy H. Bernard, Appellants, andjosef W. Dunn, Individually and in Official Capacity As Townmanager of the Town of Colonial Beach, Defendant.conrad B. Mattox, Jr. and S. Keith Barker, Appellants, julian D. Heislup, Sr. and Linda L. Dixon, Appellants, v. Town of Colonial Beach, Virginia; Bernard George Denson, individually and in His Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach; Gloria T. Fenwick, individually and in Her Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach; Edna C. Syndor, individually and in Her Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach; Thomas B. Rogers, individually and in His Official Capacity As Member Ofcouncil of Town of Colonial Beach; John A. Anderson, individually and in His Official Capacity As Chief of Policeof Town of Colonial Beach; Josef W. Dunn, Individually Andin His Official Capacity As Town Manager of the Town Ofcolonial Beach; Marty J. Perry, Individually and in Hisofficial Capacity As Police Officer with Town of Colonialbeach and Leroy H. Bernard, Appellees, 813 F.2d 401 (4th Cir. 1986)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/813/401/240026/|access-date=October 29, 2020|website=Justia Law|language=en|archive-date=July 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705235630/http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/813/401/240026/|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Tenure as chief justice===
====Presidential oaths administered====
In his capacity as chief justice, Rehnquist administered the [[Oath of office of the President of the United States|Oath of Office]] to the following presidents of the United States:
* [[George H. W. Bush]] in 1989
* [[Bill Clinton]] in 1993 and 1997
* [[George W. Bush]] in 2001 and 2005
====Leadership of the Court====
Rehnquist tightened up the justices' conferences, keeping justices from going too long or off track and not allowing any justice to speak twice until each had spoken once, and gained a reputation for scrupulous fairness in assigning opinions: Rehnquist assigned no justice (including himself) two opinions before everyone had been assigned one, and made no attempts to interfere with assignments for cases in which he was in the minority. Most significantly, he successfully lobbied Congress in 1988 to give the Court control of its own docket, cutting back on mandatory appeals and certiorari grants in general.<ref name="Toobin">Toobin, Jeffrey. ''The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court''. New York: Anchor Books, 2007.</ref>
Rehnquist added four yellow stripes to the sleeves of his robe in 1995. A lifelong fan of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] operas, he liked the [[Lord Chancellor]]'s costume in a community theater production of ''[[Iolanthe]]'', and thereafter appeared in court with the same striped sleeves.<ref name="Barrett">{{Cite journal|last=Barrett |first=John Q. |date=2008 |title=A Rehnquist Ode on the Vinson Court (Circa Summer 1953) |journal=The Green Bag |volume=11 |page=290 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1132427 |language=en|___location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=1132427 }}</ref> His successor, Chief Justice [[John Roberts]], chose not to continue the practice.<ref name="McElroy">McElroy, Lisa Tucker. ''John G. Roberts, Jr''. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2007.</ref>
====Federalism doctrine====
Scholars expected Rehnquist to push the Supreme Court in a more conservative direction during his tenure. Many commentators expected to see the federal government's power limited and state governments' power increased.<ref name="Cato-Legacy">{{cite web |url=https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4689 |title=Rehnquist's Federalist Legacy |publisher=Cato.org |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=September 16, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050916091522/https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4689 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, legal reporter Jan Crawford has said that some of Rehnquist's victories toward the federalist goal of scaling back congressional power over the states had little practical impact.<ref name="Crawford">Crawford, Jan. ''Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court''. 2007. Penguin Books. Page 29.</ref>
Rehnquist voted with the majority in ''[[City of Boerne v. Flores]]'' (1997), and referred to that decision as precedent for requiring Congress to defer to the Court when interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment (including the Equal Protection Clause) in a number of cases. ''Boerne'' held that any statute that Congress enacted to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment (including the Equal Protection Clause) had to show "a congruence and proportionality between the injury to be prevented or remedied and the means adopted to that end". The Rehnquist Court's congruence and proportionality theory replaced the "ratchet" theory that had arguably been advanced in ''[[Katzenbach v. Morgan]]'' (1966).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/2/EDSERV/DLU/BCAST/MATLS/Rehnquist_LEGENDS.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 2, 2014 |archive-date=February 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203040311/https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/2/EDSERV/DLU/BCAST/MATLS/Rehnquist_LEGENDS.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the ratchet theory, Congress could "ratchet up" civil rights beyond what the Court had recognized, but Congress could not "ratchet down" judicially recognized rights. According to the majority opinion of Justice [[Anthony Kennedy]], which Rehnquist joined in ''Boerne'':
{{blockquote|There is language in our opinion in ''Katzenbach v. Morgan'', 384 U.S. 641 (1966), which could be interpreted as acknowledging a power in Congress to enact legislation that expands the rights contained in §1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This is not a necessary interpretation, however, or even the best one.... If Congress could define its own powers by altering the Fourteenth Amendment's meaning, no longer would the Constitution be "superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means".}}
The Rehnquist Court's congruence and proportionality standard made it easier to revive older precedents preventing Congress from going too far<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/politics/politicsspecial1/william-h-rehnquist-architect-of-conservative.html|title=William H. Rehnquist, Architect of Conservative Court, Dies at 80|first=Linda|last=Greenhouse|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 5, 2005|access-date=November 13, 2017|archive-date=November 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114041008/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/politics/politicsspecial1/william-h-rehnquist-architect-of-conservative.html|url-status=live}}</ref> in enforcing equal protection of the laws.<ref>''Age Discrimination in Employment Law''. Barbara Lindemann and David D. Kadue. Page 699. 2003, Washington, D.C.</ref>
One of the Rehnquist Court's major developments involved reinforcing and extending the doctrine of [[sovereign immunity]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5296&context=faculty_scholarship |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 2, 2014 |archive-date=March 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301095427/http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5296&context=faculty_scholarship |url-status=live }}</ref> which limits the ability of Congress to subject non-consenting states to lawsuits by individual citizens seeking money damages.
In both ''[[Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents]]'' (2000) and ''[[Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett]]'' (2001), the Court held that Congress had exceeded its power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause. In both cases, Rehnquist was in the majority that held discrimination by states based upon age or disability (as opposed to race or gender) need satisfy only [[rational basis review]] as opposed to [[strict scrutiny]].
[[File:Visit reopening rehnquist 600.jpg|thumb|Rehnquist at the National Archives Rotunda in 2003]]
Though the [[Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eleventh Amendment]] by its terms applies only to suits against a state by citizens of another state, the Rehnquist Court often extended this principle to suits by citizens against their own states. One such case was ''[[Alden v. Maine]]'' (1999), in which the Court held that the authority to subject states to private suits does not follow from any of the express enumerated powers in Article I of the Constitution, and therefore looked to the [[Necessary and Proper Clause]] to see whether it authorized Congress to subject the states to lawsuits by the state's own citizens. Rehnquist agreed with Kennedy's statement that such lawsuits were not "necessary and proper":
{{blockquote|Nor can we conclude that the specific Article I powers delegated to Congress necessarily include, by virtue of the Necessary and Proper Clause or otherwise, the incidental authority to subject the States to private suits as a means of achieving objectives otherwise within the scope of the enumerated powers.}}
Rehnquist also led the Court toward a more limited view of Congressional power under the [[Commerce Clause]]. For example, he wrote for a 5-to-4 majority in ''[[United States v. Lopez]]'', {{ussc|514|549|1995}}, striking down a federal law as exceeding congressional power under the Clause.
''Lopez'' was followed by ''[[United States v. Morrison]]'', {{ussc|529|598|2000}}, in which Rehnquist wrote the Court's opinion striking down the civil damages portion of the [[Violence Against Women Act]] of 1994 as regulating conduct that has no significant direct effect on interstate commerce. Rehnquist's majority opinion in ''Morrison'' also rejected an [[Equal Protection Clause|Equal Protection]] argument on the Act's behalf. All four dissenters disagreed with the Court's interpretation of the Commerce Clause, and two dissenters, Stevens and Breyer, also took issue with the Court's Equal Protection analysis. [[David Souter]] asserted that the Court was improperly seeking to convert the judiciary into a "shield against the commerce power".
Rehnquist's majority opinion in ''Morrison'' cited precedents limiting the Equal Protection Clause's scope, such as ''[[United States v. Cruikshank]]'' (1876), which held that the Fourteenth Amendment applied only to state actions, not private acts of violence. Breyer, joined by Stevens, agreed with the majority that it "is certainly so" that Congress may not "use the Fourteenth Amendment as a source of power to remedy the conduct of private persons", but took issue with another aspect of the ''Morrison'' Court's Equal Protection analysis, arguing that cases that the majority had cited (including ''[[United States v. Harris]]'' and the ''[[Civil Rights Cases]]'', regarding lynching and segregation, respectively) did not consider "this kind of claim" in which state actors "failed to provide adequate (or any) state remedies". In response, the ''Morrison'' majority asserted that the Violence Against Women Act was "directed not at any State or state actor, but at individuals who have committed criminal acts motivated by gender bias".
The federalist trend ''Lopez'' and ''Morrison'' set was seemingly halted by ''[[Gonzales v. Raich]]'' (2005), in which the Court broadly interpreted the Commerce Clause to allow Congress to prohibit the intrastate cultivation of [[medical cannabis|medicinal]] [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]]. Rehnquist, O'Connor and Justice [[Clarence Thomas]] dissented in ''Raich''.
Rehnquist authored the majority opinion in ''[[South Dakota v. Dole]]'' (1987), upholding Congress's reduction of funds to states not complying with the national 21-year-old drinking age. Rehnquist's broad reading of Congress's spending power was also seen as a major limitation on the Rehnquist Court's push to redistribute power from the federal government to the states.
According to law professor [[Erwin Chemerinsky]],<ref>[[Erwin Chemerinsky|Chemerinsky, Erwin]] (March 11, 2005) [http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2132&context=faculty_scholarship Keynote Address: Rehnquist Court's Federalism Revolution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205070049/https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2132&context=faculty_scholarship |date=December 5, 2020 }}, 41 ''Willamette Law Review'' 827</ref> Rehnquist presided over a "federalist revolution" as chief justice, but [[Cato Institute]] scholar [[Roger Pilon]] has said that "[t]he Rehnquist court has revived the doctrine of federalism, albeit only at the edges and in very easy cases."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roh |first=Jane |date=May 19, 2015 |title=Rehnquist's Legacy: A Balanced Court |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/rehnquists-legacy-a-balanced-court |access-date=29 April 2023 |website=Fox News |language=en-US}}</ref>
====''Stare decisis''====
Some commentators expected the Rehnquist Court to overrule several controversial decisions broadly interpreting the Bill of Rights.<ref name="mr right"/> But the Rehnquist Court expressly declined to overrule ''[[Miranda v. Arizona]]'' in ''[[Dickerson v. United States]]''. Rehnquist believed that federal judges should not impose their personal views on the law or stray beyond the framers' intent by reading broad meaning into the Constitution; he saw himself as an "apostle of judicial restraint".<ref name="mr right"/> [[Columbia Law School]] Professor [[Vincent Blasi]] said of Rehnquist in 1986 that "[n]obody since the 1930s has been so niggardly in interpreting the Bill of Rights, so blatant in simply ignoring years and years of precedent."<ref name="mr right"/> In the same article, Rehnquist was quoted as retorting that "such attacks come from liberal academics and that 'on occasion, they write somewhat disingenuously about me'."
Rehnquist disagreed with ''[[Roe v. Wade]]''. In 1992, ''Roe'' survived by a 5–4 vote in ''[[Planned Parenthood v. Casey]]'', which relied heavily on the doctrine of ''[[stare decisis]]''. Dissenting in ''Casey'', Rehnquist criticized the Court's "newly minted variation on ''stare decisis''", and asserted "that ''Roe'' was wrongly decided, and that it can and should be overruled consistently with our traditional approach to ''stare decisis'' in constitutional cases".<ref name="Cornell-PlanParentVCasey">{{cite web|date=June 29, 1992|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/91-744.ZX3.html|title=Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey|publisher=[[Cornell Law School]]|access-date=March 5, 2009}}</ref>
The Court decided another abortion case, this time dealing with [[partial birth abortion]], in ''Stenberg v. Carhart'' (2000). Again, the vote was 5–4, and again Rehnquist dissented, urging that ''stare decisis'' not be the sole consideration: "I did not join the joint opinion in ''Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey'', 505 U. S. 833 (1992), and continue to believe that case is wrongly decided."
====LGBT rights====
In a 1977 dissent in the case of Ratchford v. Gay Lib, Rehnquist gave weight to the [[pseudoscientific]] notion that homosexuality is contagious.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murdoch |first1=Joyce |last2=Price |first2=Deborah |title=Courting Justice: Gay men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court |date=May 16, 2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-01514-6 |pages=203 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rehnquist |first1=William |title=Ratchford v. Gay Lib |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/434/1080.html |website=Oyez |access-date=April 10, 2022}}</ref>
Rehnquist joined the majority opinion in [[Bowers v. Hardwick]] upholding the outlawing of gay sex acts as constitutional, and did not join Chief Justice Burger's concurrence.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bowers v. Hardwick |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/478/186/#tab-opinion-1956747 |website=Oyez |access-date=May 8, 2022}}</ref>
In ''[[Romer v. Evans]]'' (1996), Colorado adopted an amendment to the state constitution that would have prevented any municipality within the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect citizens from discrimination on the basis of their [[sexual orientation]]. Rehnquist joined Scalia's dissent, which argued that since the Constitution says nothing about this subject, "it is left to be resolved by normal democratic means". The dissent argued as follows (some punctuation omitted):
{{blockquote|General laws and policies that prohibit arbitrary discrimination would continue to prohibit discrimination on the basis of homosexual conduct as well. This ... lays to rest such horribles, raised in the course of oral argument, as the prospect that assaults upon homosexuals could not be prosecuted. The amendment prohibits special treatment of homosexuals, and nothing more. It would not affect, for example, a requirement of state law that pensions be paid to all retiring state employees with a certain length of service; homosexual employees, as well as others, would be entitled to that benefit.}}
The dissent mentioned the Court's then-existing precedent in ''[[Bowers v. Hardwick]]'' (1986), that "the Constitution does not prohibit what virtually all States had done from the founding of the Republic until very recent years—making homosexual conduct a crime." By analogy, the ''Romer'' dissent reasoned that:
{{blockquote|If it is rational to criminalize the conduct, surely it is rational to deny special favor and protection to those with a self avowed tendency or desire to engage in the conduct.}}
The dissent listed murder, [[polygamy]], and cruelty to animals as behaviors that the Constitution allows states to be very hostile toward, and said, "the degree of hostility reflected by Amendment 2 is the smallest conceivable." It added:
{{blockquote|I would not myself indulge in ... official praise for heterosexual monogamy, because I think it no business of the courts (as opposed to the political branches) to take sides in this culture war. But the Court today has done so, not only by inventing a novel and extravagant constitutional doctrine to take the victory away from traditional forces, but even by verbally disparaging as bigotry adherence to traditional attitudes.}}
In ''[[Lawrence v. Texas]]'' (2003), the Supreme Court overruled ''Bowers''. Rehnquist again dissented, along with Scalia and Thomas. The Court's result in ''Romer'' had described the struck-down statute as "a status-based enactment divorced from any factual context from which we could discern a relationship to legitimate state interests".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acluutah.org/weaverdecision.htm |title=Weaver v. Nebo School District |publisher=Acluutah.org |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=May 4, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504023618/http://www.acluutah.org/weaverdecision.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The sentiment behind that statute had led the Court to evaluate it with a "more searching" form of review.<ref name="Cornell-LawrenceVTexas">{{cite web |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZC.html |title=Lawrence V. Texas |publisher=Law.cornell.edu |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=July 23, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723150253/http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZC.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, in ''Lawrence'', "moral disapproval" was found to be an unconstitutional basis for condemning a group of people.<ref name="Cornell-LawrenceVTexas"/> The Court protected homosexual behavior in the name of liberty and autonomy.<ref name="Cornell-LawrenceVTexas"/>
Rehnquist sometimes reached results favorable to homosexuals−for example, voting to allow a gay [[CIA]] employee to sue on the basis of constitutional law for improper personnel practices (although barring suit on the basis of administrative law in deference to a claim of national security reasons),<ref name="Webster v. Doe">''[[Webster v. Doe]]'', 486 U.S. 592 (1988).</ref> to allow same-sex [[sexual harassment]] claims to be adjudicated,<ref name="Oncale v. Sundowner">''[[Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.]]'', 523 US 75 (1998).</ref> and to allow the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] to require students to pay a mandatory fee that subsidized gay groups along with other student organizations.<ref name="Regents v. Southworth">{{Cite web|title=''Board of Regents v. Southworth'', 529 U.S. 217 (2000) |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/529/217.html |access-date=2023-02-20|website=Findlaw|language=en-US}}</ref>
Because of his votes in gay rights cases, [[ACT UP]] included Rehnquist alongside [[Ronald Reagan]], [[George H. W. Bush]], [[Jerry Falwell]], and [[Jesse Helms]] in a series of posters denouncing what it regarded as leading figures in the anti-gay movement in America.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fitzsimons |first=Tim |date=October 15, 2018 |title=LGBT History Month:The early days of America's AIDS crisis |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-history-month-early-days-america-s-aids-crisis-n919701 |access-date=June 27, 2022 |agency=NBC}}</ref>
====Civil Rights Act====
In ''[[Alexander v. Sandoval]]'' (2001), which involved the issue of whether a citizen could sue a state for not providing [[driver's license]] exams in languages other than English, Rehnquist voted with the majority in denying a private right to sue for discrimination based on race or national origin involving disparate impact under Title VI of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. ''Sandoval'' cited ''[[Cannon v. University of Chicago]]'' (1979) as precedent. The Court ruled 5–4 that various facts (regarding disparate impact) mentioned in a footnote of ''Cannon'' were not part of the holding of ''Cannon''. The majority also viewed it as significant that §602 of Title VI did not repeat the rights-creating language (race, color, or national origin) in §601.
====Religion clauses====
In 1992, Rehnquist joined a dissenting opinion in ''[[Lee v. Weisman]]'' arguing that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment only forbids government from preferring one particular religion over another.<ref name="nytimes souter">{{cite news|title=Souter Anchoring the Court's New Center|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 3, 1992|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DE1F3AF930A35754C0A964958260|access-date=June 27, 2008|first=Linda|last=Greenhouse|archive-date=February 1, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201015859/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DE1F3AF930A35754C0A964958260|url-status=live}}</ref> Souter wrote a separate concurrence specifically addressed to Rehnquist on this issue.<ref name="nytimes souter"/>
Rehnquist also led the way in allowing greater state assistance to religious schools, writing another 5-to-4 majority opinion in ''[[Zelman v. Simmons-Harris]]'' that approved a [[school voucher]] program that aided church schools along with other private schools.
In ''[[Van Orden v. Perry]]'' (2005), Rehnquist wrote the [[plurality opinion]] upholding the constitutionality of a display of the [[Ten Commandments]] at the Texas state capitol in [[Austin, Texas|Austin]]. He wrote:
{{blockquote|Our cases, [[Janus (mythology)|Janus]] like, point in two directions in applying the [[Establishment Clause]]. One face looks toward the strong role played by religion and religious traditions throughout our Nation's history.... The other face looks toward the principle that governmental intervention in religious matters can itself endanger religious freedom.}}
This opinion was joined by Scalia, Thomas, Breyer, and Kennedy.
====First Amendment====
[[University of Chicago Law School]] Professor [[Geoffrey Stone]] has written that Rehnquist was by an impressive margin the justice least likely to invalidate a law as violating "the freedom of speech, or of the press".<ref name="uchicago1">{{cite web|url=https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/stone-says-rehnquists-legacy-doesnt-measure|title=University of Chicago Law School > News 09.06.2005: Stone Says Rehnquist's Legacy Does not Measure Up|date=August 16, 2010 |publisher=Law.uchicago.edu|access-date=August 8, 2021|archive-date=August 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808234243/https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/stone-says-rehnquists-legacy-doesnt-measure|url-status=live}}</ref> Burger was 1.8 times more likely to vote in favor of the First Amendment; Scalia, 1.6 times; Thomas, 1.5 times.<ref name="uchicago1"/> Excluding unanimous Court decisions, Rehnquist voted to reject First Amendment claims 92% of the time.<ref name="uchicago1"/> In issues involving freedom of the press, he rejected First Amendment claims 100% of the time.<ref name="uchicago1"/> Stone wrote:
{{blockquote|There were only three areas in which Rehnquist showed any interest in enforcing the constitutional guarantee of free expression: in cases involving advertising, religious expression, and campaign finance regulation.<ref name="uchicago1"/>}} But, as he did in ''[[Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia]]'', Rehnquist voted against freedom of advertising if an advertisement involved [[birth control]] or abortion.
====Fourteenth Amendment====
Rehnquist wrote a concurrence agreeing to strike down the male-only admissions policy of the [[Virginia Military Institute]] as violating the Equal Protection Clause,<ref name="US v. Virginia">{{Cite web|title=''United States v. Virginia'', 518 U.S. 515 (1996)|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/518/515.html|access-date=2023-02-20|website=Findlaw|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="justia">{{cite web |url=http://supreme.justia.com/us/518/515/case.html |title=United States v. Virginia – 518 U.S. 515 (1996) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center |publisher=Supreme.justia.com |access-date=April 22, 2013 |archive-date=October 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022194737/http://supreme.justia.com/us/518/515/case.html |url-status=live }}</ref> but declined to join the majority opinion's basis for using the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]], writing:
{{blockquote|Had [[Virginia]] made a genuine effort to devote comparable public resources to a facility for women, and followed through on such a plan, it might well have avoided an equal protection violation.<ref name="justia"/>}}
This rationale supported facilities separated on the basis of gender:
{{blockquote|It is not the 'exclusion of women' that violates the Equal Protection Clause, but the maintenance of an all-men school without providing any—much less a comparable—institution for women.... It would be a sufficient remedy, I think, if the two institutions offered the same quality of education and were of the same overall caliber.<ref name="justia"/>}}
Rehnquist remained skeptical about the Court's Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence; some of his opinions most favorable to equality resulted from statutory rather than constitutional interpretation. For example, in ''[[Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson]]'' (1986), Rehnquist established a hostile-environment sexual harassment cause of action under Title VII of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], including protection against psychological aspects of harassment in the workplace.
====''Bush v. Gore''====
In 2000, Rehnquist wrote a concurring opinion in ''[[Bush v. Gore]]'', the case that ended the [[U.S. presidential election, 2000#Florida election results|presidential election controversy in Florida]], agreeing with four other justices that the [[Equal Protection Clause]] barred the "standardless" manual recount ordered by the [[Florida Supreme Court]].
====Presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial====
{{see also|Impeachment trial of Bill Clinton}}
[[File:William Rehnqiuist during Clinton impeachment trial February 12, 1999 (04).png|thumb|Rehnquist serving as presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial]]
In 1999, Rehnquist became the second chief justice (after [[Salmon P. Chase]]) to preside over a presidential [[Federal impeachment trial in the United States|impeachment trial]], during the proceedings against President [[Bill Clinton]]. He was a generally passive presiding officer, once commenting on his stint as presiding officer, "I did nothing in particular, and I did it very well."<ref name="Robenalt1">{{cite web |last1=Robenalt |first1=James |title=Why Is John Roberts Even in the Impeachment Trial? |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/22/founders-wanted-john-roberts-assert-himself-impeachment-trial-101727 |website=Politico |access-date=19 December 2022 |language=en |date=January 22, 2020}}</ref> In 1992, Rehnquist wrote ''Grand Inquests'', a book analyzing both [[Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|the impeachment]] of [[Andrew Johnson]] and [[Impeachment of Samuel Chase|the impeachment]] of [[Samuel Chase]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=McDonald |first1=Forrest |title=The Senate Was Their Jury |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/22/home/14653.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=29 December 2022 |date=June 14, 1992}}</ref>
==Legacy==
Jeffery Rosen has argued that Rehnquist's "tactical flexibility was more effective than the rigid purity of Scalia and Thomas."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rosen|first1=Jeffery|title=Rehnquist the Great|website=[[The Atlantic]]|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/rehnquist-the-great/303820/|date=April 2005|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=January 4, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104034014/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200504/rosen/2|url-status=live}}</ref> Rosen writes:
{{blockquote|In truth, Rehnquist carefully staked out a limbo between the right and the left and showed that it was a very good place to be. With exceptional efficiency and amiability he led a Court that put the brakes on some of the excesses of the Earl Warren era while keeping pace with the sentiments of a majority of the country—generally siding with economic conservatives and against cultural conservatives. As for judicial temperament, he was far more devoted to preserving tradition and majority rule than the generation of fire-breathing conservatives who followed him. And his administration of the Court was brilliantly if quietly effective, making him one of the most impressive chief justices of the past hundred years.}}
In ''The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist'', biographer [[John A. Jenkins]] was critical of Rehnquist's history with racial discrimination. He noted that, as a private citizen, Rehnquist had protested ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', and as a justice, consistently ruled against racial minorities in [[affirmative action]] cases. Only when white males began to make [[reverse discrimination]] claims did he become sympathetic to equal protection arguments.<ref>''[[Adarand Constructors v. Pena]]'', 515 U.S. 200 (1995); ''[[City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co.]]'', 488 U.S. 469 (1989); ''[[Regents v Bakke|Regents of the Univ. of Calif. v. Bakke]]'', 438 U.S. 265 (1978).</ref>
[[Charles Fried]] has described the Rehnquist Court's "project" as "to reverse not the course of history but the course of constitutional doctrine's abdication to politics".<ref>Fried, Charles (2004). ''Saying What the Law Is: The Constitution in the Supreme Court''. pp. 46–47. {{ISBN|978-0-674-01954-6}}</ref> Legal reporter Jan Greenburg has said that conservative critics noted that the Rehnquist Court did little to overturn the left's successes in the lower courts, and in some cases actively furthered them.<ref name="Greenburg1">Greenburg, Jan Crawford. ''Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court''. 2007. Penguin Books. p. 29.</ref> But in 2005, law professor [[John Yoo]] wrote, "It is telling to see how many of Rehnquist's views, considered outside the mainstream at the time by professors and commentators, the court has now adopted."<ref name="yoo rehnquist">
{{cite news|first=John|last=Yoo|title=He Advocated Limitations of Public Power|date=April 27, 2005|work=Philadelphia Inquirer |url=http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.22388/pub_detail.asp|access-date=October 27, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050428143450/http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.22388/pub_detail.asp|archive-date=April 28, 2005}}</ref>
==Personal health==
After Rehnquist's death in 2005, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] honored a [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] request detailing the Bureau's background investigation before Rehnquist's nomination as chief justice. The files reveal that for a period, Rehnquist had been addicted to [[Placidyl]], a drug widely prescribed for [[insomnia]]. It was not until he was hospitalized that doctors learned of the extent of his dependency.
Freeman Cary, a U.S. Capitol physician, prescribed Rehnquist Placidyl for insomnia and back pain from 1972 to 1981 in doses exceeding the recommended limits, but the FBI report concluded that Rehnquist was already taking the drug as early as 1970.<ref name="maurolegaltimes">{{Cite web |last=Mauro |first=Tony |date=January 4, 2007 |title=Rehnquist FBI File Sheds New Light on Drug Dependence, Confirmation Battles |url=https://www.law.com/?id=1167818524831 |access-date=2023-02-20 |website=Legal Times|language=en}}</ref> By the time he sought treatment, Rehnquist was taking three times the prescribed dose of the drug nightly.<ref name=MSNBC>{{Cite press release |title=FBI releases Rehnquist drug problem records |agency=Associated Press |date=August 8, 2020 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16474383|access-date=2023-02-20|website=NBC News|language=en}}</ref> On December 27, 1981, Rehnquist entered [[George Washington University Hospital]] for treatment of back pain and Placidyl dependency. There, he underwent a monthlong [[Drug detoxification|detoxification]] process.<ref name=MSNBC/> While hospitalized, he had typical [[Drug withdrawal|withdrawal]] symptoms, including [[hallucination]]s and [[paranoia]]. For example, "One doctor said Rehnquist thought he heard voices outside his hospital room plotting against him and had 'bizarre ideas and outrageous thoughts', including imagining 'a [[CIA]] plot against him' and seeming to see the design patterns on the hospital curtains change configuration."<ref name="Cooperman">{{cite news|title=Sedative Withdrawal Made Rehnquist Delusional in '81|last=Cooperman|first=Alan|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=January 5, 2007|page=A01|access-date=March 15, 2008|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010400140_pf.html|archive-date=November 6, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106083955/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010400140_pf.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
For several weeks before his hospitalization, Rehnquist had slurred his words, but there were no indications he was otherwise impaired.<ref name="maurolegaltimes"/><ref>{{Cite news|last=Shafer|first=Jack|date=2005-09-09|title=Rehnquist's Drug Habit|language=en-US|work=Slate|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/09/chief-justice-rehnquist-s-drug-habit.html|access-date=2023-02-20|issn=1091-2339}}</ref> Law professor [[Michael C. Dorf|Michael Dorf]] observed that "none of the Justices, law clerks or others who served with Rehnquist have so much as hinted that his Placidyl addiction affected his work, beyond its impact on his speech."<ref name="no news">{{Cite web |last=Dorf |first=Michael C. |title=The Big News in the Rehnquist FBI File: There Is None |url=https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/|access-date=2023-02-20|website=FindLaw|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Failing health and death==
[[File:President George W. Bush takes the Oath of Office.jpg|thumb|250px|An ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist administers the presidential oath of office to President [[George W. Bush]] at his [[Second inauguration of George W. Bush|inauguration]] in 2005, as First Lady Laura Bush looks on. Note: Rehnquist's addition of the gold stripes on his robes]]
[[File:Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (19300992415).jpg|thumb|Rehnquist's grave, which is next to his wife, Nan, at Arlington National Cemetery]]
On October 26, 2004, the Supreme Court press office announced that Rehnquist had recently been diagnosed with [[anaplastic thyroid cancer]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/politics/prognosis-for-rehnquist-depends-on-which-type-of-thyroid-cancer-he.html |title=Prognosis for Rehnquist Depends on Which Type of Thyroid Cancer He Has |last=Altman |first=Lawrence |date=November 26, 2004 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=November 16, 2017 |archive-date=November 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117065331/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/politics/prognosis-for-rehnquist-depends-on-which-type-of-thyroid-cancer-he.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the summer of 2004, Rehnquist traveled to England to teach a constitutional law class at [[Tulane University Law School]]'s program abroad. After several months out of the public eye, Rehnquist administered the oath of office to President [[George W. Bush]] at his [[Second inauguration of George W. Bush|second inauguration]] on January 20, 2005, despite doubts about whether his health would permit it. He arrived using a cane, walked very slowly, and left immediately after the oath was administered.<ref name="Totenberg-Ailing">{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4460502 |title=Ailing Rehnquist Administers Oath of Office |publisher=NPR |author=Nina Totenberg |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=January 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111222517/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4460502 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Rehnquist missed 44 oral arguments before the Court in late 2004 and early 2005, returning to the bench on March 21, 2005.<ref name="NH-RehnquistReturns">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june05/scotus_3-21.html |title=Online NewsHour: Rehnquist Returns to Bench as Supreme Court Reviews Restraining Order Case – March 21, 2005 |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=August 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811132810/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june05/scotus_3-21.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He remained involved in Court business during his absence, participating in many decisions and deliberations.<ref name="Fox-RehnquistReturns">{{cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151009,00.html |title=Chief Justice Rehnquist Returns to Court |publisher=Fox News |date=March 21, 2005 |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=July 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080718183922/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151009,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
On July 1, 2005, Justice O'Connor announced her impending retirement from the Court after consulting with Rehnquist and learning that he had no intention to retire. To a reporter who asked whether he would be retiring, Rehnquist replied, "That's for me to know and you to find out."<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 10, 2005 |title=D.C. Wonders When Rehnquist Will Go |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C161959%2C00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312185317/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161959,00.html |archive-date=12 March 2007 |access-date=2023-02-20|website=Fox News|language=en-US}}</ref>
Rehnquist died at his [[Arlington, Virginia]], home on September 3, 2005, at age 80. He was the first justice to die in office since [[Robert H. Jackson]] in 1954 and the first chief justice to die in office since [[Fred M. Vinson]] in 1953.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XO9nBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA544 |title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices |last1=Chapman |first1=Roger |last2=Ciment |first2=James |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47351-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UAAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR55 |title=Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Supreme Court |last1=Ward |first1=Artemus |last2=Brough |first2=Christopher |last3=Arnold |first3=Robert |year=2015 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8108-7521-0 |language=en |access-date=November 20, 2017 |archive-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200208184331/https://books.google.com/books?id=UAAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PR55 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was also the last serving justice appointed by Richard Nixon.
On September 6, 2005, eight of Rehnquist's former law clerks, including [[John Roberts]], his eventual successor, served as [[pallbearer]]s as his casket was placed on the [[Lincoln catafalque|same catafalque]] that bore [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s casket as he [[lying in state|lay in state]] in 1865.<ref name="Coffin">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/politics/16cnd-roberts.html |title=Roberts Hearing Set for Monday; Rehnquist's Coffin Lies in Court |work=The New York Times |author=Richard W. Stevenson |author2=David Stout |date=September 6, 2005 |access-date=September 19, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417090413/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/politics/16cnd-roberts.html |archive-date=April 17, 2009 }}</ref> Rehnquist's body [[Lying in state#United States|lay in repose]] in the Great Hall of the [[United States Supreme Court Building]] until his funeral on September 7, a [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|Lutheran]] service conducted at the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle (Washington, D.C.)|Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle]] in Washington, D.C. President [[George W. Bush]] and Justice O'Connor [[eulogy|eulogized]] Rehnquist, as did members of his family.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lane |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Lane (journalist) |title=Rehnquist Eulogies Look Beyond Bench |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090701791.html |access-date=July 3, 2010 |date=September 8, 2005 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090614/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090701791.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Rehnquist's funeral was the largest gathering of political dignitaries at the cathedral since President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s funeral in 1963. It was followed by a private burial service, in which he was interred next to his wife, Nan, at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].<ref name="WP-FuneralSet">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR2005090401066.html |title=Funeral Set for Wednesday At St. Matthew's Cathedral |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=September 5, 2005 |access-date=September 19, 2008 |first1=Martin |last1=Weil |first2=Tom |last2=Jackman |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106084005/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR2005090401066.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ANC-Rehnquist">{{Cite web|title=William Rehnquist|url=https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves/Supreme-Court/William-Rehnquist|access-date=2023-02-20|website=www.arlingtoncemetery.mil}}</ref><ref name="Christensen">Christensen, George A., ''Journal of Supreme Court History'' Volume 33 Issue 1, pp. 17–41 (February 19, 2008), ''Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited'', University of Alabama.</ref>
==Replacement as Chief Justice==
Rehnquist's death, just over two months after O'Connor announced her impending retirement, left two vacancies for President Bush to fill. On September 5, 2005, Bush withdrew the nomination of John Roberts of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit|D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals]] to replace O'Connor as associate justice and instead nominated him to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice. Roberts was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as the new chief justice on September 29, 2005. He had clerked for Rehnquist in 1980–1981.<ref name="Liptak&Purdum">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/politics/politicsspecial1/31roberts.html |title=As Clerk for Rehnquist, Nominee Stood Out for Conservative Rigor |work=The New York Times |author=Adam Liptak And Todd S. Purdum |date=July 31, 2005 |access-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-date=October 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015025445/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/politics/politicsspecial1/31roberts.html |url-status=live }}</ref> O'Connor, who had made the effective date of her resignation the confirmation of her successor, continued to serve on the Court until [[Samuel Alito]] was confirmed and sworn in on January 31, 2006.
Eulogizing Rehnquist in the ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'', Roberts wrote that he was "direct, straightforward, utterly without pretense—and a patriot who loved and served his country. He was completely unaffected in manner."<ref name="HLR-Roberts">{{cite journal |last=Roberts |first=John G. |author-link=John Glover Roberts, Jr. |date=November 2005 |title=In Memoriam: William H. Rehnquist |journal=[[Harvard Law Review]] |volume=119 |issue=1 |page=1 |issn=0017-811X |url=http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol29_No2_Garnett.pdf |access-date=November 14, 2017 |archive-date=May 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508235526/http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol29_No2_Garnett.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Family life==
Rehnquist's paternal grandparents immigrated separately from [[Sweden]] in 1880. His grandfather Olof Andersson, who changed his surname from the [[patronymic]] Andersson to the [[family name]] Rehnquist, was born in the province of [[Värmland]]; his grandmother was born Adolfina Ternberg in the [[Vreta Kloster|Vreta Kloster parish]] in [[Östergötland]]. Rehnquist is one of two chief justices of [[Swedish people|Swedish descent]], the other being [[Earl Warren]], who had [[Norwegian people|Norwegian]] and Swedish ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_04-09-01.html|title=Speech Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist|date=April 9, 2001|publisher=supremecourt.gov|access-date=September 19, 2008|archive-date=July 23, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723204908/http://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_04-09-01.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Rehnquist married Natalie "Nan" Cornell on August 29, 1953. The daughter of a San Diego physician, she worked as an analyst on the CIA's Austria desk before their marriage.<ref>Obermayer at p. xvi</ref> The couple had three children: James, a lawyer and college basketball player; [[Janet Rehnquist|Janet]], a lawyer; and Nancy, an editor (including of her father's books) and homemaker.<ref>Obermayer at p. xv</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601108.html|title=Emotion Overcomes Sober Court|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|author=Lane, Charles|date=September 6, 2005|access-date=May 28, 2010|archive-date=November 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110154315/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601108.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Nan Rehnquist died on October 17, 1991, aged 62, of [[ovarian cancer]].<ref name="ANC-Rehnquist" /> Rehnquist was survived by nine grandchildren.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4837043|title=Family, Peers Pay Respects to Rehnquist|publisher=National Public Radio|author=Totenberg, Nina|newspaper=NPR.org|date=September 8, 2005|access-date=May 28, 2010|archive-date=January 15, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115042534/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4837043|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090600630.html|title=For Chief Justice, A Final Session With His Court|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|author=Levine, Susan and Charles Lane|date=September 7, 2005|access-date=May 28, 2010|archive-date=June 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604132258/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090600630.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Shortly after moving to Washington, D.C., the Rehnquists purchased a home in [[Greensboro, Vermont]], where they spent many vacations.<ref>Obermayer, pp. 56–58</ref>
==Selected works==
===Books===
* {{Cite book| first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | title=The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is | year=1987 | ___location=New York | publisher=William Morrow & Co | isbn=0-688-05714-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourthowi00rehn }}
* {{Cite book | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title=Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson | year=1992 |___location=New York | publisher=Knopf Publishing Group | isbn=0-679-44661-3}}
* {{Cite book| first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1| title=All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime | year=1998 | ___location=New York | publisher=William Morrow & Co | isbn=0-688-05142-1 | url= https://archive.org/details/alllawsbutoneciv00will}}
* {{cite book| first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1| title=The Supreme Court: A new edition of the Chief Justice's classic history | year=2001 | ___location=New York | publisher=Knopf Publishing Group |edition=Revised| isbn=0-375-40943-2 | url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourt00rehn }}
* {{Cite book | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title=The Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 | year=2004 | ___location=New York | publisher=Knopf Publishing Group | isbn=0-375-41387-1 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/centennialcrisis00rehn }}
===Articles===
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | title = The Constitutional Issues—Administration Position | journal = [[New York University Law Review]] | volume = 45 | issue = Special | pages = 628–39 | year = 1970 }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = Is an Expanded Right of Privacy Consistent with Fair and Effective Law Enforcement? | journal = [[Kansas Law Review]] | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–22 | year = 1974 }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = The Notion of a Living Constitution | journal = [[Texas Law Review]] | volume = 54 | issue = 4 | pages = 693–706 | year = 1976 }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = Chief Justices I Never Knew | journal = Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly | volume = 3 | issue = 3 | pages = 637–56 | year = 1976 | url = https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol3/iss3/2/ }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = The Changing Role of the Supreme Court | journal = Florida State University Law Review | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–14 | year = 1986 | url = https://ir.law.fsu.edu/lr/vol14/iss1/1 }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = Constitutional Law and Public Opinion | journal = [[Suffolk University Law Review]] | volume = 20 | issue = 4 | pages = 751–70 | year = 1986 }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = The Legal Profession Today | journal = [[Indiana Law Journal]] | volume = 62 | issue = 2 | pages = 151–57 | year = 1987 | url = https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol62/iss2/2/ }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = Seen in a Glass Darkly: The Future of the Federal Courts | journal = [[Wisconsin Law Review]] | volume = 1993 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–12 | year = 1993 }}
* {{cite journal | first = William H. | last = Rehnquist | author-mask = 1 | title = Judicial Independence | journal = University of Richmond Law Review | volume = 38 | issue = 3 | pages = 579–96 | year = 2004 }}
==See also==
* [[List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
* [[List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Chief Justice)]]
* [[List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Burger Court]]
* [[List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court]]
* [[List of United States federal judges by longevity of service]]
==Notes==
{{Notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1992 |___location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cushman |first=Clare |title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 |edition=2nd |publisher=([[Supreme Court Historical Society]], Congressional Quarterly Books) |year=2001 |isbn=1-56802-126-7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/justicesofunited0000unse }}
* {{Cite book |last=Hudson |first=David L. |title=The Rehnquist Court: Understanding Its Impact and Legacy |publisher=raeger Publishers |year=2006 |___location=New York |isbn=0-275-98971-2}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |___location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall }}
* {{Cite book|last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |___location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart }}
* {{Cite book|last=Obermayer |first=Herman |title=Rehnquist: A Personal Portrait of the Distinguished Chief Justice of the United States |publisher=Threshold Editions |year=2009 |___location=New York |isbn=978-1-4391-4082-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/rehnquistpersona00ober }}
* {{Cite book |last=Perlstein |first=Rick |author-link=Rick Perlstein |title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |publisher=Scribner |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7432-4303-2|title-link=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America }}
* {{Cite book|last=Schwartz |first=Herman |title=The Rehnquist Court: Judicial Activism on the Right |publisher=[[Hill and Wang]] |year=2003 |___location=New Hork |isbn=0-8090-8074-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/rehnquistcourtju00schw }}
* {{Cite book|last=Tushnet |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Tushnet |title=A Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law |publisher=W.W. Norton Co. |year=2005 |___location=New York |isbn=0-393-05868-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/courtdividedrehn00tush }}
* {{Cite book|last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=Garland Publishing |year=1994 |___location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv/page/590 590] |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv/page/590 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Woodward |first=Robert |author-link=Bob Woodward |author2=Armstrong, Scott |author-link2=Scott Armstrong (journalist) |title=The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court |publisher=Avon Books |year=1979 |___location=New York |isbn=0-671-24110-9|title-link=The Brethren (non-fiction) }}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
{{sister project links|commonscat=yes|wikt=no|n=no|b=no|q=yes|s=yes|v=no}}
* {{FJC Bio|1988|nid=1386831|name=William Hubbs Rehnquist<!--(1924–2005)-->}}
* {{C-SPAN|341}}
** [https://www.c-span.org/video/?26799-1/turning-right-rehnquist-supreme-court ''Booknotes'' interview with David Savage on ''Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court'', June 28, 1992.]
** [https://www.c-span.org/video/?26896-1/grand-inquests-historic-impeachments ''Booknotes'' interview with Rehnquist on ''Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson'', July 5, 1992.]
* "In Memoriam: William H. Rehnquist", [https://web.archive.org/web/20090304021527/http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/119/Nov05/Rehnquist_TributeFTX.pdf 119 Harvard Law Review 2005] (tributes to Rehnquist)
* [http://william-rehnquist.com Original source William Rehnquist FBI file]
* [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh99-1067/browse.html 1986 Senate confirmation hearing]
* William Rehnquist's FBI files, hosted at the [[Internet Archive]]:
** [https://archive.org/details/foia_Rehnquist_William_H.-HQ-1 Part 1]
** [https://archive.org/details/foia_Rehnquist_William_H.-HQ-2 Part 2]
** [https://archive.org/details/foia_Rehnquist_William_H.-HQ-3 Part 3]
** [https://archive.org/details/foia_Rehnquist_William_H.-HQ-4 Part 4]
** [https://archive.org/details/foia_Rehnquist_William_H.-HQ-5 Part 5]
** [https://archive.org/details/foia_Rehnquist_William_H.-HQ-6 Part 6]
* [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST-POWELL/pdf/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST-POWELL.pdf Supreme Court Associate Justice Nomination Hearings on William Hubbs Rehnquist in November 1971] United States Government Publishing Office
* [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST/pdf/GPO-CHRG-REHNQUIST.pdf Supreme Court Chief Justice Nomination Hearings on William Hubbs Rehnquist in July 1986] United States Government Publishing Office
===Opinions===
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/rehnquist/rehnquist_key_decisions.html Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist's Key Decisions] – ''The Washington Post''
* [http://www.nwprogressive.org/portal/special/Rehnquist.html The Legacy of William H. Rehnquist – Majority and Dissenting Opinions in Major Supreme Court Cases] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051028112428/http://www.nwprogressive.org/portal/special/Rehnquist.html |date=October 28, 2005 }}
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{{s-bef|before=[[John Marshall Harlan II|John Harlan]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Warren E. Burger|Warren Burger]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Chief Justice of the United States]]|years=1986–2005}}
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