Promotion pt. II
Various legal scholars have chimed in (The Flight of the Mavervorl is required reading in the halls of American jurisprudence, particularly for its insights into Jaws and Ronnie James Dio) to say that both Earl Warren and Warren Burger, the two Chief Justices immediately preceding William Rehnquist, were nominated and sworn in to their executive posts without ever having been an Associate Justice. That the Warren Commission report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy advanced the idea of a "magic bullet" is probably incidental.In fact, out of the sixteen Chief Justices starting with John Jay, it was more likely that the Chief would go John Roberts' probable route than Rehnquist's, who was an Associate Justice first. This was surprising to me.
John Jay would be the first Chief Justice without any Associate Justice hazing period because, well, the Supreme Court didn't exist. And William Howard Taft sailed right to the top but he had already been President. Plus, he promised he would render all his decisions from his specially-made bathtub.
I still don't get the logic behind nominating as Chief someone who hasn't even been an Associate. That is why I am that much more bitter for having been passed over as Pope.
I have linked a very handy Supreme Court Who's Who above.
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by Marty Barrett at Thursday, September 15, 2005
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