WASHINGTON — As Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s family made funeral plans, President Bush dealt with the first dual vacancy on the nation’s highest court in more than three decades by nominating John Roberts as Rehnquist’s replacement.
The president moved quickly to replace Rehnquist, who died Saturday night after a long fight with cancer.
“There are now two vacancies on the Supreme Court, and it will serve the best interests of the nation to fill those vacancies promptly,” Bush said in a televised speech from the White House on Sunday.
The last time there were simultaneous vacancies at the court was 1971, when Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan retired in September, about a week apart. Rehnquist, then a Justice Department lawyer, urged the Nixon administration to move fast in replacing them and wound up being appointed to Harlan’s seat himself. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.
Rehnquist presided over Clinton’s impeachment trial in 1999, helped settle the 2000 presidential election in Bush’s favor, and fashioned decisions over the years that diluted the powers of the federal government while strengthening those of the states.
Many court watchers had expected the ailing chief justice to step down over the summer, which would have given the Senate a chance to confirm his successor while the court was out of session. Instead Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement to spend time with her ill husband. Bush chose Roberts, a former Rehnquist clerk and friend, to replace O’Connor.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Judiciary Committee chairman, said: “Chief Justice Rehnquist’s death marks the passing of a great American. For more than three decades he left a deep imprint on American law. It has been a profound experience to know him personally.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee’s senior Democrat, said, “One of the hallmarks of (Rehnquist’s) tenure was his tenacious fight to preserve the integrity and independence of our federal courts. His commitment to the court and his passion for the law and for public service was extraordinary.”
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