Stanford community mourns the death of William H. Rehnquist '48, MA '48, LLB '52

Chief Justice of the United States William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening, September 3, at his home in Virginia after battling thyroid cancer. He was 80.

Nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States by President Richard M. Nixon on October 21, 1971, Justice Rehnquist was sworn in on January 7, 1972.  Rehnquist served as associate justice for fifteen years before President Ronald Reagan nominated him chief justice of the United States in 1986. 

Prior to attending Stanford, Rehnquist served in World War II with the Army Air Corps. At Stanford, he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in political science in 1948 and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He then moved to Harvard, where he received a master's degree in government before returning to California and Stanford Law School.

While enrolled in Stanford's law program, Rehnquist was a member of the Stanford Law Review, as was his classmate, Sandra Day (later O'Connor), who joined him on the High Court bench in 1981. Upon graduation in 1952, both Rehnquist and O'Connor became members of the Order of the Coif, a national legal society that recognizes outstanding academic achievement.

Following graduation, Rehnquist clerked for Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson at the U.S. Supreme Court. Having completed his clerkship in 1953, Rehnquist moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he practiced law until he was appointed assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice by President Nixon in 1969. Two years later, Nixon appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Professor Barton H. "Buzz" Thompson, Jr., a former clerk to Justice Rehnquist said, "He was a great jurist with sharp logic, a photographic memory, and a love of history. He leaves as his legacy not only scores of precedent-setting legal decisions but the modern conservative legal movement. He was the favorite of years of law clerks who always found him willing to take the time to offer personal advice. Those of us fortunate enough to get to know him outside the courtroom will miss him for his humor, friendship, warmth, and tennis game.”

Stanford Law School Dean Larry D. Kramer, who clerked at the Supreme Court in the year prior to Rehnquist's elevation to Chief Justice, said, "For influence as well as longevity, he will surely be remembered as one of the most important people ever to sit on the Supreme Court. His career on the bench spanned an enormous transformation in the authority and responsibility of the Court as well as in its positions on constitutional law, and he was probably the critical player in making it all happen. His was truly a noteworthy life in the law.”

Stanford Lawyer, the law school’s alumni magazine, recently published a one-on-one interview with Chief Justice Rehnquist, as well as a rountable discussion on the Rehnquist Court among Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer, former Dean Kathleen M. Sullivan, Professor Robert Weisberg, Senior Lecturer Alan B. Morrison, and UCLA School of Law Professor Eugene Volokh.

The interview can be read online at: http://www.law.stanford.edu/publications/lawyer/issues/72/1on1Rehnquist.html

And the roundtable discusssion can be read online at:

http://www.law.stanford.edu/publications/lawyer/issues/72/TheRehnquistCourt.html

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