William Rehnquist: life, ideas and books

Life

William Hubbs Rehnquist was born in Milwaukee in 1924, and was born William Donald Rehnquist before he changed his middle name in high school. He served in the Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1946, studied at Stanford and Harvard, ranked first in his Stanford law class and clerked for Justice Robert H. Jackson in 1952 and 1953.

He practised law in Phoenix, served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1969 to 1971, and was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Nixon in 1972. In 1986 President Reagan elevated him to Chief Justice, a position he held until his death in 2005. He presided over the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Ideas

Rehnquist was the most conservative member of the Burger Court and, as Chief Justice, he led a Court that gave the states more room against federal power. He read the Tenth Amendment as protecting powers reserved to the states, and he favoured a narrow reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. In criminal law he leaned toward the prosecution, and he considered capital punishment constitutional. He dissented in Roe v. Wade (1973), and he argued that the Court had no business reflecting society's changing values.

His federalism opinions are his best-known legacy. In National League of Cities v. Usery (1977) he wrote for the majority striking down federal minimum-wage rules for state employees, and in United States v. Lopez (1995) and United States v. Morrison (2000) the Court limited Congress's power under the Commerce Clause. He joined the majority in Bush v. Gore (2000).

Major works

• Dissent in Roe v. Wade (1973).
• National League of Cities v. Usery (1977).
• United States v. Lopez (1995).
• United States v. Morrison (2000).

Why conservatives read him

Conservatives see Rehnquist as the judge who put structural limits back into constitutional law. His opinions on federalism built on the idea, associated with James Madison, that the national government has enumerated powers and that dividing authority between nation and states protects liberty. His example paved the way for later justices, Antonin Scalia among them, and his service on the bench between Nixon and the second Bush appointments links several generations of conservative lawyers.

Assessments of his record are not uniform. Critics point to a 1952 clerk's memo that appeared to defend Plessy v. Ferguson, which he said reflected Justice Jackson's views rather than his own, and to disputes over his early career. Even justices who opposed him in cases recognised his skill as the leader of the Court and his efficiency in running its business. Students of constitutional law read him to understand the revival of federalism in the late twentieth century.