After a yearlong battle with thyroid cancer, 80-year-old U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died Sept. 3 at his home in Virginia. Just two days later, President George W. Bush announced that he would nominate John Roberts to fill Rehnquist’s post as head of the nine-member court. Initially, Bush nominated Roberts to fill the post vacated by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who announced her retirement – pending confirmation of her replacement – on July 1. Rehnquist’s death means Bush will now have the opportunity to nominate a second justice to the court, which he says he will do in a “timely manner.” Roberts’ confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate, which was scheduled to begin Sept. 6, will now commence Monday, Sept. 12.
Many groups, women’s rights organizations chief among them, have vowed to fight Roberts’ confirmation. They say that 50-year-old Roberts – who served as a law clerk for Rehnquist and worked in the Department of Justice before being confirmed to a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003 – is hostile toward women, especially in the areas of equal employment and reproductive rights.
Rehnquist, whom many credit with leading the high court’s shift to the political right, served on the court for 14 years as an associate justice before President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the chief justice post in 1986. Unless Bush can vet and confirm a second nominee this month, O’Connor will return to her spot on the bench when the Supremes’ next session begins Oct. 3.
This article appears in September 9 • 2005.