William Rehnquist was the most Jeffersonian associate justice of the Supreme Court in history. Even before Ronald Reagan and Edwin Meese made originalism the touchstone of conservative constitutionalism, Rehnquist spent a decade toiling as an isolated dissenter in the vineyard of the actual Constitution rather than stare decisis. To Justice William Brennan’s infamous “Rule of Five”—as Brennan explained to one of his clerks, with five votes, he could do anything—Rehnquist opposed the idea that provisions of the Constitution had fixed meanings established at the time of their ratification. For that, he suffered the slings and arrows of outrageously partisan journalists.
Read Full Article »
