Word: brennans
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...ended last week. With the abrupt resignation of Justice William Brennan, the court that Chief Justice Earl Warren led into an age of liberal judicial activism passed into history...
...most influential survivor of that panel, Brennan waged a sometimes lonely fight over the past two decades to stem a growing conservative tide in the Supreme Court. Using both his intellect and his gregarious personality, he tried -- not always successfully -- to slow the steady erosion of the landmark decisions on civil liberties that he had written or helped shape. His departure, which may be followed soon by those of the court's two remaining aging liberals, could set the stage for a total transformation of the high court. It could become a body more skeptical of -- if not hostile...
...fill the vacancy with a conservative. "This is a seminal event in the return of the rule of law," exulted Michael Carvin, a former Justice Department official who helped screen judicial candidates for Ronald Reagan. "If there is anyone who represents the Warren Court's judicial activism, it is Brennan. He is the intellectual leader on the left of the court. Some important cases will go the other way when he is replaced...
...Brennan remains keen of mind, but his body is ailing. He fainted about three weeks ago while waiting to board a plane at Newark airport, but revived and went on to take a Scandinavian cruise. After his return to Washington, however, doctors told him he had suffered a mild stroke and urged him to ease up, advice Brennan took. On Friday night he sent a hand-delivered letter to the White House. Citing "my advancing age and medical condition," Brennan wrote that he was resigning "effective immediately...
...Justices -- Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy -- Bush is in a position to pacify the restive right and propel the court more speedily on its current course. With two other Justices, Thurgood Marshall, 82, and Harry Blackmun, 81, in fragile health and rumored ready to follow Brennan into retirement, the Bush imprint on the high court could become every bit as significant as Reagan...