[Mb-civic] Conservative 'Lone Ranger' became court's mainstream voice - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Conservative 'Lone Ranger' became court's mainstream voice

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff  |  September 4, 2005

WASHINGTON -- In his first years as a Supreme Court justice three 
decades ago, William Rehnquist earned a reputation as the conservative 
''Lone Ranger" because he so frequently dissented from the liberal 
majority's rulings.

But by the time of his death yesterday, Rehnquist's once-outlying ideas 
had become the mainstream view of the highest court on many key issues.

Rehnquist, who served the second-longest tenure as chief justice in US 
history, succeeded in reviving states' rights to decide certain issues 
for themselves, limiting death penalty appeals, and relaxing the 
division between church and state. Once the most conservative justice, 
he came to be seen as more moderate than newcomers Antonin Scalia and 
Clarence Thomas.

Rehnquist was less successful on social issues, failing to persuade the 
majority to join his thinking on abortion, affirmative action, and gay 
rights. But the 1986-2005 ''Rehnquist Court" will be remembered for 
overseeing a rightward shift in the American judiciary in the last two 
decades of the 20th century under a series of Republican presidencies.

''His term coincided with a huge Republican realignment, and he reaped 
the benefit of it," said New York University constitutional law 
professor Barry Friedman. ''The time was right for Rehnquist. The 
politics came into alignment with him."

When President Nixon appointed Rehnquist to the Supreme Court in 1971, 
it had been dominated by liberal justices who were sweeping through a 
dizzying array of new rights -- the rights of welfare recipients not to 
lose their checks, of criminal defendants against police and 
prosecutors, of pregnant women to obtain an abortion, and many others. A 
greater portion of public life was falling under the supervision of the 
federal courts, provoking a backlash among conservatives.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/04/conservative_lone_ranger_became_courts_mainstream_voice/
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