Papers Show Burger’s Lack of Enthusiasm for Rehnquist Social Plans
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was known for his social nature, and newly released papers from his early years on the U.S. Supreme Court reinforce that view. Shortly after becoming an associate justice in 1972, he helpfully proposed ways to increase interactions among the justices.
Writing to Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1973, Rehnquist suggested holding a coffee hour after oral argument, the Recorder reports. “I think that the practice which each of us appears to follow at the close of a day of oral argument—plodding back to his own individual salt mine—is bad for morale,” Rehnquist wrote.
He also criticized the court dining room, saying it combined “baronial elegance with dreariness” and suggested another idea—an annual “gridiron show or other parody or satire on the court.”
Burger was not enthusiastic, according to the Recorder story and the New York Times, which covered the dining room complaint. Burger said a coffee hour was “feasible” one day a week but “my own attendance would be brief or rare, or both. There just isn’t time.” As for the dining room, Burger said, it was once much worse. “You should have seen it in 1969.” But he promised to keep an open mind on the comedy show.
Rehnquist did organize a clerks’ satirical skit a few years later, according to the book The Brethren, but it didn’t go over well with Burger, the Recorder points out. The next term, Burger assigned Rehnquist only one case.
Both stories highlight Rehnquist’s agony over whether to explain why he did not recuse himself in a 5-4 decision dismissing a challenge to Army surveillance of political groups. Rehnquist had defended the spying before the Senate while he worked in the Justice Department.
Rehnquist asked Burger and well as Justices Byron R. White and Potter Stewart for their advice. Stewart said the idea was “basically healthy” and Rehnquist issued a statement saying no rule of judicial ethics required recusal. The issue continued to dog him, however, spurring some senators to vote against his promotion to chief justice, the Times story says.
The papers cover only three years, the period when all the justices have since died, the Times explains. Justice John Paul Stevens joined the court in 1975.
