page_title: Richard Nixon Supreme Court candidates
section_title: Warren E. Burger nomination
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Nixon Supreme Court candidates / Politics / Warren E. Burger nomination
context_page_description: President Richard Nixon entered office in 1969 with Chief Justice Earl Warren having announced his retirement from Supreme Court of the United States the previous year. Nixon appointed Warren E. Burger to replace Earl Warren, and during his time in office appointed three other members of the Supreme Court: Associate Justices Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, and William Rehnquist. Nixon also nominated G. Harrold Carswell and Clement Haynsworth for the vacancy that was ultimately filled by Blackmun, but the nominations were rejected by the United States Senate. Nixon's failed Supreme Court nominations were the first since Herbert Hoover's nomination of John J. Parker was rejected by the Senate.
context_section_description: In 1968, Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement after 15 years on the Court, effective on the confirmation of his successor. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated sitting Associate Justice Abe Fortas to the position, but a Senate filibuster blocked his confirmation. With Johnson's term as President about to expire before another nominee could be considered, Warren remained in office for another Supreme Court term.
  In his presidential campaign, Nixon had pledged to appoint a strict constructionist as Chief Justice. Many speculated that President Richard Nixon would elevate sitting Justice Potter Stewart to the post, some going so far as to call him the frontrunner. Stewart, though flattered by the suggestion, did not want again to appear before and expose his family to the Senate confirmation process. Also, he did not relish the prospect of taking on the administrative responsibilities delegated to the Chief Justice. Accordingly, he met privately with the president to ask for his name to be removed from consideration. Nixon also offered the position to former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who declined.
  Instead, in 1969, Nixon nominated Warren E. Burger to the Chief Justice position. Burger had first caught Nixon's eye when the magazine U.S. News and World Report had reprinted a 1967 speech that Burger had given at Ripon College, in which he compared the United States judicial system to those of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark:
  I assume that no one will take issue with me when I say that these North European countries are as enlightened as the United States in the value they place on the individual and on human dignity. [Those countries] do not consider it necessary to use a device like our Fifth Amendment, under which an accused person may not be required to testify. They go swiftly, efficiently and directly to the question of whether the accused is guilty. No nation on earth goes to such lengths or takes such pains to provide safeguards as we do, once an accused person is called before the bar of justice and until his case is completed.
  Through speeches like this, Burger became known as a critic of Chief Justice Warren and an advocate of a literal, strict-constructionist reading of the U.S. Constitution. Nixon's agreement with these views, being expressed by a readily confirmable, sitting federal appellate judge, led to the appointment.
  The Senate confirmed Burger to succeed Warren by a vote of 74-3 on June 9, 1969. Senators Eugene McCarthy (DFL-MN), Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) and Stephen Young (D-OH) voted against the nomination. Senator J. William Fulbright (D-AR) simply voted "present." In total, 22 senators did not vote on the nomination, with Minority Whip Hugh Scott (R-PA) noting that of the senators absent, Marlow Cook (R-KY), Hiram Fong (R-HI), Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), Jacob Javits (R-NY), George Murphy (R-CA), Charles Percy (R-IL) and Winston Prouty (R-VT) would have all voted to pass the nomination. Burger was sworn in as the new Chief Justice on June 23, 1969.
caption: Painting of Burger
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