03 September 2005

William H. Rehnquist, 1924–2005

The Chief Justice died earlier this evening a month short of his eighty-first birthday, after nineteen years as Chief Justice and fifteen more as an Associate Justice. RIP

Although Rehnquist's jurisprudence often did not meet with my approval, he did a great deal to repair institutional damage wreaked by his predecessor as Chief Justice. For that alone he deserves respect.