Word: brennans
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...White House, Brennan's resignation could not have come at a more propitious time. The President has angered the Republican right by backing away from his "no new taxes" pledge and by showing a willingness to compromise on a new civil rights bill aimed at softening recent high-court rulings that make it more difficult for minorities to win discrimination cases against employers. Bush's appointment of a staunchly conservative Justice "could solve a lot of problems for us," said a top presidential political adviser. "This is an issue where he could easily and naturally make a choice that will...
...Brennan, an Irish Roman Catholic and Democrat, was plucked from the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1956 by Dwight Eisenhower, who hoped that the nomination would help undermine Democrat Adlai Stevenson's liberal challenge to his bid for a second term. Three years earlier Eisenhower had appointed Warren, the Republican Governor of California. He later pointed to Warren and Brennan as two of the "biggest mistakes" he had made...
...Brennan, who sprinkled his off-bench conversations with profanity and wrote crisply clear opinions, had an unusually collegial approach to finding the often elusive fifth vote needed to support his views. He would sometimes dispatch his law clerks to find out from their fellows what points bothered other Justices about his position. Then, in early drafts, he would deftly tailor his arguments to overcome their objections. His sharply honed writing often carried...
...Arriving on the court shortly after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that struck down racial segregation, Brennan joined the judicial march toward civil rights. When Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus tried to block the entry of nine black students to Little Rock's Central High School in 1957, Brennan shaped a unanimous decision that "no state legislator or executive or judicial officer can war against the Constitution without violating his undertaking to support...
Ever vigilant against police excesses, Brennan castigated his colleagues for their refusal in 1981 to review a suit brought by lawyers for a 13-year-old girl who, during a sweep to detect drugs, had been humiliatingly sniffed by police dogs in her classroom, then strip-searched. He denounced the action as "a violation of any known principle of human decency...