William Rehnquist facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Rehnquist
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Official portrait, 1986
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| 16th Chief Justice of the United States | |
| In office September 26, 1986 – September 3, 2005 |
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| Nominated by | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Warren E. Burger |
| Succeeded by | John Roberts |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| In office January 7, 1972 – September 26, 1986 |
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| Nominated by | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | John Marshall Harlan II |
| Succeeded by | Antonin Scalia |
| United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel | |
| In office January 29, 1969 – December 1971 |
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| President | Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Frank Wozencraft |
| Succeeded by | Ralph Erickson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
William Donald Rehnquist
October 1, 1924 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | September 3, 2005 (aged 80) Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse |
Nan Cornell
(m. 1953; died 1991) |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Stanford University (AB, AM, LLB) Harvard University (MA) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  U.S. Army Air Force |
| Years of service | 1943–1946 |
| Rank |  Sergeant |
William Hubbs Rehnquist (/ˈrɛnkwɪst/ REN-kwist; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005.
Early life
Rehnquist was born on October 1, 1924, and grew up in the Milwaukee suburb of 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 translator and homemaker. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Sweden.
Rehnquist graduated from Shorewood High School in 1942. He attended Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, for one quarter in the fall of 1942 before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Forces, the predecessor of the 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, 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, 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.
After leaving the military in 1946, Rehnquist attended Stanford University with financial assistance from the G.I. Bill. He graduated in 1948 with Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in political science and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. 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 of the Stanford Law Review. Rehnquist was strongly conservative from an early age and wrote that he "hated" liberal Justice Hugo Black in his diary at Stanford. He graduated in 1952 ranked first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws. 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, 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). Rehnquist married Nan Cornell in 1953.
Career
Rehnquist clerked for Justice Robert H. Jackson during the Supreme Court's 1952–53 term, then entered private practice in Phoenix, Arizona. He 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 1971, Nixon nominated Rehnquist to succeed Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II, and the U.S. Senate confirmed him that year. 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 fourth-longest-serving chief justice and the eighth-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 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. In Bush v. Gore, he voted with the court's majority to end the Florida recount in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
Death
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Rehnquist died at his Arlington, Virginia, home on September 3, 2005, four weeks before his 81st birthday. 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. He was also the last serving justice appointed by Nixon.
On September 6, 2005, eight of Rehnquist's former law clerks, including John Roberts, his eventual successor, served as pallbearers as his casket was placed on the same catafalque that bore Abraham Lincoln's casket as he lay in state in 1865. Rehnquist's body lay in repose in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building until his funeral on September 7, a Lutheran service conducted at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush and Justice O'Connor eulogized Rehnquist, as did members of his family. 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.
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 parish in Östergötland. Rehnquist is one of two chief justices of Swedish descent, the other being Earl Warren, who had Norwegian and Swedish ancestry.
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. The couple had three children: James, a lawyer and college basketball player; Janet, a lawyer; and Nancy, an editor (including of her father's books) and homemaker. Nan Rehnquist died on October 17, 1991, aged 62, of ovarian cancer. Rehnquist was survived by nine grandchildren.
Shortly after moving to Washington, D.C., the Rehnquists purchased a home in Greensboro, Vermont, where they spent many vacations.
Books authored
- The Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876. New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 2004. ISBN 0-375-41387-1.
- All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1998. ISBN 0-688-05142-1.
- Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson. New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 1992. ISBN 0-679-44661-3.
- The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It Is. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1987. ISBN 0-688-05714-4.
- The Supreme Court: A new edition of the Chief Justice's classic history (Revised ed.). New York: Knopf Publishing Group. 2001. ISBN 0-375-40943-2.
Images for kids
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Portrait of Rehnquist as an associate justice in 1972
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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
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Rehnquist at the National Archives Rotunda in 2003
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Rehnquist serving as presiding officer of the Clinton impeachment trial
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See also
In Spanish: William Rehnquist para niños
