Word: burger
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With some success: Burger-inspired innovations like federal court administrators have helped make judges measurably more productive. Burger's off-the-court duties consume as much as a third of his time. "The Chief Justice has two jobs," says Powell. "The rest of us have one." Says White: "I have a feeling Burger gets refreshed by his involvement in other duties, such as being chairman of the Judicial Conference. It's like us going to the beach...
...Burger has also concerned himself with running the Supreme Court more efficiently, installing computers and photocopying machines (the Justices had none when he got there). He has become a housekeeper as well, arranging for flowers to be planted in the courtyards and plastic rubber plants placed in the corridors. Not all of his interior decorating has pleased his colleagues: in the early '70s, Burger moved one of his desks into the court's conference room. That offended some Justices who prefer to think of the Chief as one of the pares rather than as primus...
...recent years it has become almost an oral tradition for clerks to poke fun at Burger as a vain and pompous man who likes French wine, as well as all things English, particularly English barristers, whom he considers to be more "civilized" than American lawyers. On occasion, he has been preceded by a messenger who gravely announced to startled clerks, "Gentlemen, the Chief Justice of the United States." Paranoid about press leaks, he opposed Rehnquist's suggestion for a weekly tea with clerks because he thought it a security risk. The court's press officer, Barrett McGurn, regularly...
...Still, Burger's own clerks argue that the Chief is a charming and thoughtful man, given to bringing them small favors like homemade jam and freshly baked bread prepared by Burger himself. The Chief has been particularly considerate to Douglas since the old liberal retired from the court in 1975; he has called on him regularly, and personally supervised the construction of a ramp into the court for Douglas' wheelchair. (Douglas, a brilliant but acerbic man, was less kind to Burger while still on the bench. In conversations with his clerks, he referred to Burger...
...Burger's judicial philosophy is not easily discerned. He does not have a broad vision of the court as an instrument for social reform. Nor is he particularly concerned with "judicial restraint" or the limits of the court's power. Rather, observes Georgetown University Law Professor Dennis J. Hutchinson, "Burger votes the way he thinks a right-thinking person would vote. He applies middle-class values and his own common sense." The Chiefs opinion in Wisconsin vs. Yoder, which ruled that the state could not force Amish parents to send their children to school, is an example...