Word: laws
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Chief votes with the majority, he has the right to decide who should write the opinion of the court and provide the reasoning behind the decision. If he is in the minority, the most senior member of the majority assigns the task. According to former Supreme Court law clerks, Burger has, at times, held back or switched his vote to keep control of the opinion assignment, a practice the clerks call "phony voting." Burger regularly dismisses such assertions as fables. In fact, his colleagues generally believe that either the Chiefs lapses into indecision are just that, indecision, or he misunderstands...
Bringing the Justices to consensus-Powell once described them as ''nine one-man law firms''-takes either considerable intellect or political ability or both...
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...
...judicial phiants like Marshall Harlan, whose clearly articulated views of the Constitution and the role of the court gave other Justices a standard around which to rally or against which to react. ''There are no strong philosophical bents on this court,'' says University of Virginia Law Professor...
...When the court is working on the margins of things, it would be expecting too much to get clear and ringing answers,'' says Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe. ''Yes, this court is un even and divided; it is feeling its way. But to do otherwise would undermine the credibility of the institution.'' If the lib eral Warren Court has not become the conservative Burger Court, if the Nixon appointees have failed to march in lock step, it should come as no surprise. It is merely a reflection of the integrity, and In deed...