Ike's Mistake: The Accidental Creation of the Warren Court
William Fassuliotis ‘19
Guest Columnist
When General Eisenhower was inaugurated in , he became the first Republican president in twenty years. Presidents Roosevelt and Truman would appoint twelve justices,[1] drastically changing the character and ideology of the Court. Except for Justice Harold Burton, whom Truman appointed as a gesture of bipartisan goodwill, every justice on the court was a Democrat. While Eisenhower was no ideologue, he would explain to advisors, in public, that “My [Ike’s] principal concern is to do my part in helping restore the Court to the position of prestige that it used to hold, and which in my opinion was badly damaged during the New and Fair Deal days.”[2] Eisenhower would appoint five justices, enough to recreate the Court’s character and ideology. Whatever Ike expected, the coming judicial revolution certainly was not it.
Spearheaded by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Associate Justice William Brennan, the Warren Court radically expanded
Earl Warren
Life Story:
The accomplished attorney general and California governor who led the Supreme Court as Chief Justice during a year period of many Constitutional decisions protecting individual rights
Background
Earl Warren was born on March 19, in Los Angeles, California. His parents, Methias (Matt) and Crystal, both immigrated to the midwestern United States from Scandanivia as infants, and were extremely poor. The couple had two children—Earl, and a daughter, Ethel. Shortly before Earl turned five years old, the family moved north to a small townhouse in Bakersfield, California, where Matt worked as a car repairman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. At the time, both Los Angeles and Bakersfield were small but growing railroad towns. Earl recalled that in his neighborhood, “there were no organized social or recreational activities for either school children or adults. There was no theater, nor for some years even a library. It was just a dusty frontier railroad town.”
Matt, who never was able to get his own education, strongly supported Earl’s schooling. When Earl was five years old, Matt persuaded the principal to
Chief Justice Earl Warren
Selected Opinions by Chief Justice Warren:
Powell v. McCormack ()Topic:Role of Courts
Our system of government requires that federal courts on occasion interpret the Constitution in a manner at variance with the construction given the document by another branch. The alleged conflict that such an adjudication may cause cannot justify the courts' avoiding their constitutional responsibility.
Flast v. Cohen ()
Topic:Role of Courts
Taxpayers had standing under Article III to invoke federal judicial power, since they alleged that tax money was being spent in violation of a specific constitutional protection against the abuse of legislative power.
Terry v. Ohio ()
Topic:Search & Seizure
When a police officer observes unusual conduct that leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot and that the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous, when he identifies himself as a policeman and makes reasonable inquiries in the course of investigating this behavior, and when nothing in the initial stages of the encounter serves to d
Chief Justice Earl Warren: Life, Career, and Major Achievements
Chief Justice Earl Warren served as the 14th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from to Under his leadership, the Court issued landmark decisions, most notably in the areas of civil rights and individual liberties. His tenure marked a period of significant judicial activism and reform.
READ ALSO: Major Events of the Civil Rights Movement
Whether celebrated or criticized, Chief Justice Earl Warrens tenure reshaped American law, society, and the very fabric of the nations identity.
Early Life and Education
Earl Warren was born on March 19, , in Los Angeles, California. He was raised in Bakersfield and developed a deep love for the American legal system early on. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and later received his Juris Doctor from its law school.
Early Career
Before ascending to the nations highest court, Warrens career in public service was vast and varied. He served in World War I and, post-war, began working in the Alameda County District Attorneys Office, swiftly rising to become the District Attorney. Hi
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