A Good Day for Warren Burger Fans
Until today, Nixon-era Chief Justice Warren Burger was largely forgotten, except for the memorable portrait of him in The Brethren as vain and vacuous, more concerned with controlling who got to write opinions than with what they said.
All that changed today: First, Harriet Miers, asked by Senator Patrick Leahy to name her favorite Justice said "Warren," and asked whether she meant Earl Warren, she reportedly replied that she meant Warren Burger.*
And Tim Flanigan, who withdrew his nomination today to be Deputy Attorney General, can now return to his long-delayed project: a biography of Warren Burger for which he has already been paid $800,000, funnelled through the Federalist Society by wealthy donors.
*I should acknowledge that there is an alternate version of the Leahy story in which, according to National Review Online, "Miers was asked about Justices she admired. She responded that she admired different Justices for different reasons, including Warren -- interrupted by Senator Leahy -- Burger for his administrative skills." Both accounts are second-hand.
October 7, 2005 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
If it is elitist to deride this nominee who applauds the trivial, so be it.
October 7, 2005 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who knows what she was saying? But if she was really saying that she admired Warren Burger for anything, it would show how little she knows about the Court. Chief Justice Burger certainly wasn't known for his brilliant legal mind. And his administrative skills? I think it's pretty widely acknowledged that Chief Justice Burger was a God-awful administrator. Chief Justice Rehnquist, by contrast, was (his intense conservatism notwithstanding) both legally brilliant and an outstanding administrator. It's amazing to me that Miers didn't just say "Rehnquist." You'd think she'd at least have been coached to say that, which would have been a perfectly safe thing to say.
Of course, if it was really Earl Warren she was talking about, then great!
October 7, 2005 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Warren Burger? Ummmmm...is that some sort of punch line to a joke? Alllllllllrighty then...
October 7, 2005 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
October 8, 2005 8:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
warren the hamburger was sort of an interesting chief justice.
he was totally beholden to the fascist right.
as a favor to a company that founded the fascist heritage foundation - champion spark plug company[along with joe coors] - warren detailed the dicta that decided the antitrust case that was us vs ford motor company. the deuce[ a nominal dem lost].
it was dicta that called for an analysis. oddly, no legal scholar cared to analyze the decision. why? the fascist right was running everything even then.
the major beneficiary of the decision was the champion spark plug company, the firm that had carried all the money to dc to stimulate the doj's complaint.
some years later, champion spark plug company got sued on anti-trust grounds. similar to the ones that the usg attacked fomoco for violating. and the issues in the suit were on point with warren's dicta that said that the champion spark plug company should have been the target of the doj. since champion was the real violater of us antitrust laws.
how to prevent cert? well the heritage foundation did it as slickly as it could have been done. warren was persuaded to retire prematurely so as to become the head of the consitution's anniversary committee. rehnquist became cj. and stare decisis became forgotten by the completely fascist court.
this second warren was a whore. lots of money was spent to provoke his resignation. that and the photos of his little boys.
October 9, 2005 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
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October 23, 2005 4:27 AM | Reply | Permalink