TheRehnquist Court was the period in the history of theSupreme Court of the United States during whichWilliam Rehnquist served asChief Justice. Rehnquist succeededWarren E. Burger as Chief Justice after the latter's retirement, and Rehnquist held this position until his death in 2005, at which pointJohn Roberts was nominated and confirmed as Rehnquist's replacement. The Rehnquist Court is generally considered to be more conservative than the precedingBurger Court, but not as conservative as the succeedingRoberts Court. According toJeffrey Rosen, Rehnquist combined an amiable nature with great organizational skill, and he "led a Court that put the brakes on some of the excesses of theEarl Warren era while keeping pace with the sentiments of a majority of the country."[1]
Biographer John Jenkins argued that Rehnquist politicized the Supreme Court and moved the court and the country to the right.[2] Through its rulings, the Rehnquist Court often promoted a policy ofNew Federalism in which more power was given to thestates at the expense of the federal government.[3] The Rehnquist Court was also notable for its stability, as the same nine justices served together for 11 years from 1994 to 2005, the longest such stretch in Supreme Court history.[4]
Powell retired in 1987; President Reagan's nomination ofRobert Bork was defeated by the Senate, and his second nominee,Douglas H. Ginsburg, withdrew before a vote. Reagan's third nominee,Anthony Kennedy, was confirmed by the Senate. Brennan retired in 1990 and Marshall in 1991, giving PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush the opportunity to appoint JusticesDavid Souter andClarence Thomas. White retired in 1993 and Blackmun retired in 1994, and PresidentBill Clinton appointed JusticesRuth Bader Ginsburg andStephen Breyer to replace White and Blackmun respectively.
The composition of the Supreme Court remained unchanged for the balance of the Rehnquist Court, which ended when Rehnquist died on September 3, 2005. He was succeeded by the current Chief Justice,John Roberts, who was appointed to the position byGeorge W. Bush.
The Rehnquist Court issued several notable rulings touching on many aspects of American life. Landmark cases of the Rehnquist Court include:[3][5][6]
Texas v. Johnson (1989): In a 5–4 decision written by Justice Brennan, the Court struck down a state law that prevented the burning of theAmerican flag. The court held that the act of burning the flag is protected speech under theFirst Amendment. In a subsequent case,United States v. Eichman (1990), the court struck down a similar federal statute.
United States v. Lopez (1995): In a 5–4 decision written by Justice Rehnquist, the court struck down theGun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 as an unconstitutional extension of Congressional power. Notably, this case marked the first time since the advent of theNew Deal that the court struck down a law based on theCommerce Clause.[3] The law in question made it a federal crime to have a handgun near or in a school, and the Court held that possession of a handgun is not an economic activity and does not have a substantial effect oninterstate commerce.
United States v. Morrison (2000): In a 5–4 decision written by Justice Rehnquist, the court struck down portions of theViolence Against Women Act of 1994 as an unconstitutional extension of Congressional power. As inLopez, the court ruled that Congress had attempted to stretch theCommerce Clause beyond its constitutional meaning, and it struck down the federal provision that allowed victims of gender-motivated violence to sue their attackers in federal court.
Bush v. Gore (2000): In aper curiam decision in which four justices dissented, the Supreme Court overruled theFlorida Supreme Court and halted a manualrecount of the2000 presidential election ballots cast in Florida. The court ruled that the recount violated theEqual Protection Clause as Florida lacked a statewide standard for recounting votes, and also ruled that no recount could possibly take place before the statutory "safe harbor" deadline. Without a recount, RepublicanGeorge W. Bush won Florida's electoral votes and the presidency.
Lawrence v. Texas (2003): In a 6–3 decision in which Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, the court invalidated several statesodomy laws.Lawrence overturnedBowers v. Hardwick, a 1986 case in which the court had held that state laws criminalizing gay sexual acts were constitutional. In overturningBowers, the court ruled that intimate consensual sexual conduct was protected bysubstantive due process under theFourteenth Amendment.
McConnell v. FEC (2003): In a 5–4 decision written by Justices Stevens and O'Connor, the court upheld several provisions of theBipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, including its restrictions on "soft money." The court held that not all political speech is protected by the First Amendment, and that the government has a legitimate interest in preventing corruption and the appearance of corruption. The case was partially overturned byCitizens United v. FEC (2010).
Rehnquist had often been a lone conservative dissenter during theBurger Court, but the appointments of O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and, perhaps most importantly, Thomas, moved the court to the right.[1][7] Rehnquist favored returning power to the states at the expense of the federal government, and he was joined by the aforementioned justices in striking down federal laws,[3] which the Rehnquist Court did more often than any previous court.[8][9] These five justices formed a dominant conservative bloc, though Rehnquist was slightly less committed to ideological purity than Scalia or Thomas,[1] and Justices Kennedy and O'Connor often served as swing votes who would side with the more liberal justices.[6][10] O'Connor's prominence as a swing vote led some to call it the "O'Connor Court," and she wrote several important opinions.[8] Justice Stevens, the most senior associate justice during much of the Rehnquist Court, led the liberal bloc, which also included Justices Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer.[11] Stevens was often successful in winning over either or both of O'Connor and Kennedy in order to stymie the agenda of the court's conservative bloc.[12] Of the nine justices who served from 1994–2005, seven had been appointed by Republican presidents, and the relative liberalism of some of those justices (particularly Stevens and Souter) frustrated many in theRepublican Party.[13]
Banks, Christopher P.; Blakeman, John C. (2012).The U.S. Supreme Court and New Federalism: From the Rehnquist to the Roberts Court. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN9780742535046.
Belsky, Martin H. (2002).The Rehnquist Court: A Retrospective. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195348934.
Hensley, Thomas R.; Hale, Kathleen; Snook, Carl (2006).The Rehnquist Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO.ISBN9781576072004.
Schwarz, Herman (2002).The Rehnquist Court: Judicial Activism on the Right. Hill and Wang.ISBN9780809080731.
Simon, James F. (2012).The Center Holds: The Power Struggle Inside the Rehnquist Court. Simon and Schuster.ISBN9781439143254.
Colucci, Frank J. (2009).Justice Kennedy's Jurisprudence: The Full and Necessary Meaning of Liberty. University Press of Kansas.ISBN9780700616626.
Hirshman, Linda (2015).Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World. HarperCollins.ISBN9780062238481.
Jenkins, John A. (2012).The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist. PublicAffairs.ISBN9781586488871.
Rossum, Ralph A. (2014).Understanding Clarence Thomas: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Restoration. University Press of Kansas.ISBN9780700619481.
Yarbrough, Tinsley E. (2005).David Hackett Souter: Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195347906.
Abraham, Henry Julian (2008).Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN9780742558953.
Hall, Kermit L.; Ely, James W. Jr.; Grossman, Joel B., eds. (2005).The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195176612.
Hall, Kermit L.; Ely, James W. Jr., eds. (2009).The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0195379396.
Hall, Timothy L. (2001).Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. Infobase Publishing.ISBN9781438108179.
Hoffer, Peter Charles; Hoffer, WilliamJames Hull; Hull, N. E. H. (2018).The Supreme Court: An Essential History (2nd ed.). University Press of Kansas.ISBN978-0-7006-2681-6.
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