Rehnquist left a long legacy of landmark rulings

Published: 2005-09-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Sept. 3 death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist at the age of 80 left a legacy of landmark decisions and a tightly run courtroom. But it also leaves the Supreme Court with two vacancies after 11 years of stability. He died at his home in Virginia just under a year after the court announced he had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. His body was to lie in repose in the Supreme Court until his Sept. 7 funeral at St. Matthew Catholic Cathedral. The current court's longest-serving member, Rehnquist first joined the court in 1972 on the same day as Justice Lewis Powell, the last time there were two vacancies at once. Rehnquist was elevated to chief justice by President Ronald W. Reagan in 1986, upon the retirement of Justice Warren Burger. Rehnquist was praised by abortion opponents for his votes dissenting from the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision and later to overturn that ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, and for declaring in another case that "life begins at conception." He also wrote opinions supporting government-funded programs that included students at religious schools and opposing laws to permit assisted suicide.

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