[Mb-civic] An 'Activist' Justice - George F. Will - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

An 'Activist' Justice

By George F. Will
Monday, September 5, 2005; Page A31

When the 1964 presidential candidacy of Arizona's Sen. Barry Goldwater 
carried only six states, many commentators concluded that conservatism, 
and especially his southwestern sort, would not be heard from again. But 
many conservatives said to themselves, "Well, we'll just see about that."

One of those was a young Phoenix attorney, William Rehnquist. After 
graduating at the top of his Stanford Law School class in which another 
Arizonan, Sandra Day O'Connor, finished third, his political interests 
were quickened by Goldwater's campaign.

Another conservative undiscouraged by 1964 was a Californian who came to 
the nation's attention as a political figure by giving a nationally 
telecast speech for Goldwater. Twenty-two years later, Ronald Reagan 
nominated Associate Justice Rehnquist to move along the Supreme Court's 
bench, where President Richard M. Nixon had placed him, to the center 
chair -- the chief justice's -- a few feet from where Reagan's first 
Supreme Court nominee, O'Connor, sat.

Rehnquist's life of public service, which began when he clerked for 
Justice Robert Jackson, ended three days before the scheduled beginning 
of Senate hearings on the nomination to the court of Rehnquist's former 
clerk, John Roberts. If Rehnquist's death occasions a proper assessment 
of his jurisprudence, the assessment will be a suitable coda to his 
lifelong reverence for the court and will dispel some confusion about it.

Our language is, just now, fogging our intelligence. It is said that 
Rehnquist was an "activist." That is true, but not especially 
illuminating, absent a caveat and a distinction.

The caveat is that although Rehnquist was a conservative activist, he 
was not a radical. He was averse to overturning settled practices, and 
he knew how to honorably accept defeat -- how to bring closure to an 
argument about the Constitution had his side lost.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR2005090400912.html?nav=hcmodule
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