Warren E. Burger

Warren Burger
Official portrait, 1986
15th Chief Justice of the United States
In office
June 23, 1969 – September 26, 1986
Nominated byRichard Nixon
Preceded byEarl Warren
Succeeded byWilliam Rehnquist
20th Chancellor of the College of William & Mary
In office
June 26, 1986 – July 1, 1993
President
Preceded byAlvin Duke Chandler (1974)
Succeeded byMargaret Thatcher
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
In office
March 29, 1956 – June 23, 1969
Nominated byDwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded byHarold Montelle Stephens
Succeeded byMalcolm Richard Wilkey
11th United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division
In office
May 1, 1953 – April 14, 1956
PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded byHolmes Baldridge
Succeeded byGeorge Cochran Doub
Personal details
Born
Warren Earl Burger

(1907-09-17)September 17, 1907
Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedJune 25, 1995(1995-06-25) (aged 87)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeArlington National Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Elvera Stromberg
(m. 1933; died 1994)
Children2
EducationSt. Paul College of Law (LLB)
Signature

Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul College of Law in 1931. He helped secure the Minnesota delegation's support for Dwight D. Eisenhower at the 1952 Republican National Convention. After Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election, he appointed Burger to the position of Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division. In 1956, Eisenhower appointed Burger to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Burger served on this court until 1969 and became known as a critic of the Warren Court.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon nominated Burger to succeed Earl Warren as Chief Justice, and Burger won Senate confirmation with little opposition. He did not emerge as a strong intellectual force on the Court, but sought to improve the administration of the federal judiciary. He also helped establish the National Center for State Courts and the Supreme Court Historical Society. Burger remained on the Court until his retirement in 1986, when he became Chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution. He was succeeded as Chief Justice by William H. Rehnquist, who had served as an associate justice since 1972.

In 1974, Burger wrote for a unanimous court in United States v. Nixon, which rejected Nixon's invocation of executive privilege in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The ruling played a major role in Nixon's resignation. Burger joined the majority in Roe v. Wade in holding that the right to privacy prohibited states from banning abortions. Later analyses have suggested that Burger joined the majority in Roe solely to prevent Justice William O. Douglas from controlling assignment of the opinion.[1] On the contrary, Burger would vote with the majority in Harris v. McRae in 1980, which formally launched the Hyde Amendment into effect. Although too late, he later abandoned Roe v. Wade in Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. His majority opinion in INS v. Chadha struck down the one-house legislative veto.

Although Burger was nominated by a conservative president,[2] the Burger Court also delivered some of the most liberal decisions regarding abortion, capital punishment, religious establishment, sex discrimination, and school desegregation[3] during his tenure.[4]

  1. ^ Woodward, Bob; Armstrong, Scott (May 31, 2011). The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1439126349. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
  2. ^ "Perceived Qualifications and Ideology of Supreme Court Nominees, 1937–2012" (PDF). SUNY at Stony Brook. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  3. ^ Barker, Lucius J. (Autumn 1973). "Black Americans and the Burger Court: Implications for the Political System". Washington University Law Review. 1973 (4): 747–777. Archived from the original on January 21, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2017 – via Washington University Law Review Archive.
  4. ^ Earl M. Maltz, The Coming of the Nixon Court: The 1972 Term and the Transformation of Constitutional Law (University Press of Kansas; 2016)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by Nelliwinne