William Rehnquist

[[File:William Rehnquist.jpg|165px|thumb|right|William Rehnquist]]
{{law}}{{cquote|[Rehnquist] was funny and charming, very bright and quick. He could give you all the good conservative arguments on any issue. He had no sympathy for criminal defendants — none. When you talked about the problem of the cities or the poor or blacks, it was clear he had no understanding. It was a universe he didn't comprehend.|||Former Supreme Court law clerk Donald Trautman<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-29-tm-4832-story.html The Rehnquist Court : Bill Rehnquist Was Once Considered An Extremist. Now His Views Almost Always Become The Law Of The Land.]</ref>}}
'''William Hubbs Rehnquist''' {{lived|1924|2005}} was a [[far-right]] Supreme Court Justice first appointed by [[Richard Nixon]] as an associate justice, then made chief justice by [[Ronald Reagan]], after getting "the highest negative vote ever received by a confirmed justice" up to that time at 33,<ref name=Paul>''The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American 80s'' by Paul Slansky (1989) Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671673394.</ref>{{rp|171}} which was also the maximum until the Republicans eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in 2017.<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/01/fact-check-gop-ended-senate-filibuster-supreme-court-nominees/3573369001/ Fact check: Republicans, not Democrats, eliminated the Senate filibuster on Supreme Court nominees] by Camille Caldera (October 1, 2020) ''USA Today''.</ref> Sexual assaulter [[Brett Kavanaugh]] had 48 votes against him in 2018.<ref>{{wpa|Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination}}</ref> In 2020, the Republican-controlled Senate removed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, knowing that they wanted to ram through nominees who were even more unpopular than Rehnquist (Brett Kavanaugh received  He served on the Supreme Court until his death in 2005.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Rehnquist William Rehnquist]</ref> He has been described by some as a “rigid conservative,” with one critic of him writing "If you were a [[homosexual]], a racial or religious minority, a woman, an alien, an accused criminal, or someone facing the [[death penalty]], you were not going to get Rehnquist’s vote.”<ref>[https://newrepublic.com/article/107540/the-partisan-life-of-chief-justice-william-rehnquist-john-jenkins Overruled: How Conservative Was Chief Justice Rehnquist?]</ref> It's also said he voted "with the prosecution in criminal cases, with business in [[Monopoly|antitrust cases]], with employers in labor cases, and with the government in [[Free speech|speech]] cases."<ref>Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong, ''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''. 1979. Simon and Schuster.</ref>{{rp|221}}

==Voter suppression in Arizona==
As the [[Jim Crow]] era began coming to an end, Black voters began leaving the Party of [[Lincoln]] ([[GOP]]) for the Democratic Party making the GOP increasingly White. The GOP struggled to win in cities, and concluded from the results of the 1960 election that a new strategy was needed.<ref name=anderson>"Voter Fraud" by Carol Anderson. In: ''Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past'', edited by Kevin M. Kruse & Julian E. Zelizer (2022) Basic Books. {{isbn|1541601394}}. Pages 299-311.</ref>{{rp|304-305}} Thus was born {{wpl|Operation Eagle Eye (United States)|Operation Eagle Eye|,}} which focused on the 1964 election in [[Arizona]], which was based on a scheme led by Rehnquist in the 1962 election in Phoenix.<ref name=anderson/>{{rp|304}} The scheme consisted of:<ref name=anderson/>{{rp|304}}
*"Caging", sending mail to registered voters and using any returned mail as the basis for challenging the legitimacy of registrations
*Sending deceptive mailers and phone calls to registered Democrats, stating that they will be arrested if have a traffic violation and they vote, or telling them to vote for [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] who was not on the ballot
*Sending GOP "poll watchers" to polling places, specifically to harass minority voters, including both people with "Ballot Security" armbands and uniformed-and-armed off-duty police officers
Operation Eagle Eye became a blueprint for future voter suppression strategies.<ref name=anderson/>{{rp|304-305}}

==Beliefs==
Rehnquist was infamous for his far-right opinions, especially in his early days on the court, even earning the nickname "The Lone Ranger" due to the frequency of him being the lone dissent in a ruling.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,961645,00.html Reagan's Mr. Right]</ref> He infamously said in 1952, "I think ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' was right and should be re-affirmed,"<ref>[https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/print/sources_document7.html William Rehnquist, "A Random Thought on the Segregation Cases," 1952]</ref> and although he disavowed the article where this was stated, there is have evidence of him defending [[segregation]] as a [[United States Constitution|Constitutional]] right as late as 1993.<ref>[https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/supreme-court-term-william-rehnquist-segregation.html There’s Unsettling New Evidence About William Rehnquist’s Views on Segregation]</ref> In 1970, his belief in segregation was so strong that he advocated for a Constitutional Amendment allowing local governments to segregate schools.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/09/07/rehnquist-wrote-school-segregation-memo/b8d6b094-b78b-4e78-bd4d-359fef18cc69/ Rehnquist Wrote School Segregation Memo]</ref>

Unsurprisingly, his opinions on [[LGBT]] people were about on the same level as his opinions on non-white people, to the point where the [[gay rights]] organization [[ACT UP]] called him one of the major figures in the fight against homosexual rights in the United States at the time.<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-history-month-early-days-america-s-aids-crisis-n919701 LGBTQ History Month: The early days of America's AIDS crisis]</ref> In ''Ratchford v. Gay Lib'', he essentially said that homosexuality is contagious.<ref>[https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/434/1080.html RATCHFORD v. GAY LIB, 434 U.S. 1080 (1978)]</ref> He sided with the majority in ''Bowers v. Hardwick'', which upheld the constitutionality of [[sodomy]] laws.<ref>[https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/478/186/#tab-opinion-1956747 Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986)]</ref> This same logic led him to dissent in ''[[Lawrence v. Texas]]'', which overturned the aforementioned case.<ref>[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZC.html LAWRENCE V. TEXAS (02-102) 539 U.S. 558 (2003)]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rehnquist, William}}
[[Category:Anti-abortion activists]]
[[Category:Antisemites]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Far-right politics]]
[[Category:Homophobes]]
[[Category:Lawyers]]
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoters]]
[[Category:Racists]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:Segregationists]]
[[Category:Sexists]]
[[Category:United States Constitution]]
[[Category:United States law]]
[[Category:United States Supreme Court Justices]]

Categories: Anti-abortion activists, Antisemites, Authors, Far-right politics, Homophobes, Lawyers, Military, Pseudoscience promoters, Racists, Right-wing activists, Segregationists, Sexists, United States Constitution, United States law, United States Supreme Court Justices