Chief Justice Quotes
Technically the correct title is Chief Justice of the United States. He was one of the longest-serving Chief Justices and in his tenure the court did change from a liberal court to a conservative one.
The Chief Justice at the time was an ultra-conservative judge, who together with his 8 colleagues—all conservative—had blocked much of the democratic and progressive legislation that the Congress had passed. FDR had a much different legal and philosophical view of the Constitution than the Chief Justice, and the court would declare much of his New Deal legislation, passed in the emergency of the Great Depression, unconstitutional. Almost all of those “unconstitutional” things were years later passed again and this time a more modern court found they were Constitutional.
In the bizarre situation of South African Apartheid, he had obtained a segregated education, become a lawyer, and became a judge and then the chief justice of the neighboring state of Namibia. However, he had never been able to vote.
Rehnquist was a bit of an egomaniac. He was more pompous than other chief justices and was distressed that lawyers in oral arguments would address him as “Mr. Justice,” like the other justices, which he felt did not give sufficient deference to his position. He also designed a set of judicial robes for himself which instead of being all black as was traditional and worn by the other justices, had 4 gold stripes on each arm sleeve. See the photograph of the Chief Justice.
The quotation he gives from the first Chief Justice is from McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819. The issue is one that has divided jurists and politicians ever since the Constitution was ratified was should it be interpreted literally giving credence only to that which the framers specifically intended or as Hughes, Marshall and most modern interpreters believe that the principles should be interpreted in the light of the times. The Founding Fathers never envisaged an Internet or a potential enemy who could kill millions of Americans without sending large contingents of soldiers to our shores.
