Word: purlieus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Rehnquist did inhabit some traditional purlieus of American conservatism-he believed, for instance, that those pursuing civil rights, abortion rights and gay rights were trampling constitutional principles of limited government to enforce their will. Rehnquist also believed, with evangelical passion, that the postwar federal government had assumed judicial and regulatory powers that the Constitution assigns to the states. Proponents of states' rights, who had felt so marginalized at the court in the 1960s and '70s, exulted at Rehnquist's devolution of power. One measure of Rehnquist's influence is that he helped refine the contemporary notion of a conservative...