Word: warrens
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rudely surprise the President who appointed them. Theodore Roosevelt, for example, expected Oliver Wendell Holmes to uphold his trust-busting legislation. When Holmes disappointed him, Roosevelt exclaimed, "I could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone than that!" Dwight Eisenhower had no reason to think that Warren and Brennan would turn out to be flaming liberals; Ike later regretted Warren's appointment as his worst mistake. "People change on the court," says Dennis Hutchinson of the University of Chicago Law School. "They're not cookie-cutter ideologues...
...Supreme Court was last a major election issue when Richard Nixon campaigned against the activist Warren Court in 1968, vowing to appoint Justices who would "interpret the Constitution strictly." Within three years, Nixon had four openings to fill, including that of Chief Justice (Warren stepped down at age 77 in 1969). Pundits proclaimed a "Nixon Court" under Burger, the new Chief Justice, and waited for a veer to the right...
...Court cut back in some areas, notably the rights of criminals, but went much further than the Warren Court in others. It allowed publication of the Pentagon papers, generally upheld affirmative action, made sex discrimination unconstitutional, permitted forced busing in school-desegregation cases and, most startlingly, gave women a constitutional right to abortion. The last decision was written by Blackmun, a Nixon appointee who until then had been considered a meek, go-along conservative. As if to underscore their independence, the Justices unanimously ordered Nixon to turn over his incriminating White House tapes to the special prosecutor during Watergate...
...Burger Court has been just as activist as the Warren Court, willing to second-guess other branches of Government and read new meaning into the Constitution. But unlike the Warren Court, which had a clear moral vision, especially toward the havenots, the Burger Court has lacked any coherent overarching theme. Says Duke University Law School Professor William Van Alstyne: "Many cases are just a muddle. The legal tests being developed now are as complicated and picayune as the Internal Revenue Code...
...fragile center crumbles or the conservatives get a clear majority through appointments, the Brethren may be of a mind to topple some Warren Court landmarks and perhaps narrow some of the earlier rulings of the Burger Court. The key areas to watch...