Word: burger
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...retired, Douglas waited all afternoon in his chambers for his colleagues to pay their respects, but only William Brennan and Byron White showed up. ("We had all shaken his hand when his decision was announced at lunch," explains one Justice.) The next week, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger called Douglas' three law clerks in for tea, mentioned budget problems and pointedly asked them if they had any job prospects. At the request of the other Justices, Burger also wrote Douglas suggesting that he move from his centrally located chambers to a "more commodious" office in a distant corner...
Under the Burger Court, access to the federal courthouse door is very gradually but steadily being restricted for activists seeking social change. Citing the increasing workload as a partial reason, the Burger Court has employed a variety of devices to cut back: raising procedural difficulties for plaintiffs, eliminating some fees awarded to lawyers, and demanding that civil rights advocates prove a discriminatory intent in cases of racial segregation. The Supreme Court has also insisted that more constitutional claims be heard by state rather than federal courts...
Ironically, Brennan has been the leading national figure encouraging state courts to take over leadership in protecting civil liberties. In a series of articles, dissents and statements, Brennan has urged state courts to find provisions in state constitutions that mandate "higher standards" than Burger Court rulings on individual rights...
Even before Brennan's invitation, however, several state supreme courts had begun to base some significant rulings exclusively on state constitutions-thus accepting the challenge of the Burger Court while evading some of its more conservative pronouncements. State court interpretation of state constitutional law is final, immune from Supreme Court review unless a violation of federal law can be established. Some state courts still assume "they don't have to protect individual rights any more since the U.S. Supreme Court is doing it," says California Associate Justice Stanley Mosk, "but more states are taking the view that they...
...said the present Burger Court is stricter than the former Warren court in dealing with pornography violations. "Pornography offends my taste," but the law is "not easy to enforce," he said...