Rehnquist Remembered
Here is a good, fair, obituary on Rehnquist....
"Was it a modest man's way of poking fun at himself, and deflating the importance of the mighty office he held? Or was it simply a wry tribute to the masters from a lifelong fan of Gilbert and Sullivan? Some time in 1994, William Rehnquist, the 16th Chief Justice of the United States, appeared in a new robe. Until then, the head of the Supreme Court had worn the same plain black gown as his eight colleagues. One day, however, Rehnquist's had suddenly acquired four golden bars on each sleeve. It was modelled on one he had seen in a production of Iolanthe, worn by the Lord Chancellor who deftly amended a law by adding the word "not", and thus saved a company of fairies from a terrible death.
In the real world, it was not so easy for Rehnquist, as he presided for 19 years over the US Supreme Court - the third branch of the constitution and, whether it likes it or not, the ultimate arbiter of the culture wars that divide American society. But so adroitly did he carry out the job that history may well remember him as one of the great Chief Justices in US history.
Rehnquist was a conservative, but an old- fashioned one, as distant as could be imagined from the doctrinaire modern variety that tends to drown out opponents by sheer volume. His views were consistently right-wing, but invariably tempered by moderation and common sense.
Most important of all, he was a superb organiser of the court's business. He abhorred windy and protracted argument. Rehnquist was a creature of habit, arriving at the court at 9am each morning, and rarely staying beyond 4pm. In his deft, self-effacing way, he held together a court that was often sharply divided and which contained its fair share or more of outsized intellects and tender egos.
He smoothed over rows, and almost never allowed himself to become angry. "I have a very high boiling point," he once said. Never was the Rehnquist style more evident - and more necessary - than in his low-key handling of the Clinton impeachment hearings of early 1999 over which, as the constitution stipulated, he presided.
In his approach to the central duty of the court, to uphold the constitution and make sure that the laws of the land conformed to it, he was similarly measured. He was uncomfortable when the court was expected to resolve social problems, and hated anything that smacked of judicial meddling. Under Rehnquist, the high court halved the number of cases it agreed to hear each year, so that more time could be spent on getting the big decisions right..."
Read the rest...
"Was it a modest man's way of poking fun at himself, and deflating the importance of the mighty office he held? Or was it simply a wry tribute to the masters from a lifelong fan of Gilbert and Sullivan? Some time in 1994, William Rehnquist, the 16th Chief Justice of the United States, appeared in a new robe. Until then, the head of the Supreme Court had worn the same plain black gown as his eight colleagues. One day, however, Rehnquist's had suddenly acquired four golden bars on each sleeve. It was modelled on one he had seen in a production of Iolanthe, worn by the Lord Chancellor who deftly amended a law by adding the word "not", and thus saved a company of fairies from a terrible death.
In the real world, it was not so easy for Rehnquist, as he presided for 19 years over the US Supreme Court - the third branch of the constitution and, whether it likes it or not, the ultimate arbiter of the culture wars that divide American society. But so adroitly did he carry out the job that history may well remember him as one of the great Chief Justices in US history.
Rehnquist was a conservative, but an old- fashioned one, as distant as could be imagined from the doctrinaire modern variety that tends to drown out opponents by sheer volume. His views were consistently right-wing, but invariably tempered by moderation and common sense.
Most important of all, he was a superb organiser of the court's business. He abhorred windy and protracted argument. Rehnquist was a creature of habit, arriving at the court at 9am each morning, and rarely staying beyond 4pm. In his deft, self-effacing way, he held together a court that was often sharply divided and which contained its fair share or more of outsized intellects and tender egos.
He smoothed over rows, and almost never allowed himself to become angry. "I have a very high boiling point," he once said. Never was the Rehnquist style more evident - and more necessary - than in his low-key handling of the Clinton impeachment hearings of early 1999 over which, as the constitution stipulated, he presided.
In his approach to the central duty of the court, to uphold the constitution and make sure that the laws of the land conformed to it, he was similarly measured. He was uncomfortable when the court was expected to resolve social problems, and hated anything that smacked of judicial meddling. Under Rehnquist, the high court halved the number of cases it agreed to hear each year, so that more time could be spent on getting the big decisions right..."
Read the rest...
posted by Lil' Mermaid | 10:39 AM
1 Comments:
Blog is informative . Dont't stop. I'm sure you'd be interested in How to buy & sell everything, like auto on interest free credit; pay whenever you want.
Post a Comment
<< Home