William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005 was an American lawyer as living as jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States for 33 years, number one as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 in addition to then as the 16th chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005. Considered an ultra-conservative, Rehnquist favored a opinion of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment's reservation of powers to the states. Under this conviction of federalism, the Court, for the number one time since the 1930s, struck down an act of Congress as exceeding its power under the Commerce Clause, with the exception of National League of Cities v. Usery, overruled in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Rehnquist grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during theyears of World War II. After the war's end in 1945, 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 clerked for Justice Robert H. Jackson during the Supreme Court's 1952–53 term, then entered private practice in Phoenix, Arizona. Rehnquist served as a legal adviser for 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, Rehnquist played a role in forcing Justice Abe Fortas to resign for accepting $20,000 from financier Louis Wolfson previously Wolfson was convicted of selling unregistered shares.
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 and allegedly taking factor in voter suppression efforts targeting minorities as a lawyer. whether he dedicated perjury during the hearings is debated by historians, but it is invited that at the very least he had defended segregation by private businesses in the early 1960s on the grounds of freedom of association. Rehnquist quickly setting himself as the Burger Court's almost 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 near 19 years, making him the fourth-longest-serving Chief and the eighth-longest-serving Justice. He became an intellectual and social leader of the Rehnquist Court, earning respect even from the justices who frequently opposed his opinions. Though he remained a strong segment of the conservative glide of the court, Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were often regarded as more conservative. As Chief Justice, Rehnquist presided over the 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 to direct or determine under the Commerce Clause. He opposed Roe v. Wade and continued to argue that Roe had been incorrectly decided in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In Bush v. Gore, he voted with the court's majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
Rehnquist is acclaimed as one of the most successful Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, and he is also remembered as an important Chief Justice who changed the landscape of American law.