A Law Clerk and His Justice: What William Rehnquist Did Not Learn from Robert Jackson

58 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2011

See all articles by Laura Ray

Laura Ray

Widener University - Delaware Law School

Date Written: 1996

Abstract

Although William Rehnquist clerked in the chambers of Justice Robert Jackson during the Court's 1951 and 1952 terms, he seldom referred to his clerkship and never cited its influence on his own jurisprudence. Yet as Justices, Jackson and Rehnquist shared a number of conservative positions, including a vision of federalism favoring state prerogatives, a tendency to protect community rights against the claims of individual challengers, and a preference for a limited Court role. Rehnquist's reticence may be explained by the profound difference between their broader approaches to decisionmaking. Jackson's diverse legal canon reflects his dialectical approach, which required a constant accommodation of opposing principles and led him to weigh the particulars of each case in order to make a pragmatic assessment of alternative outcomes; as a consequence, on occasion he reached opposite results in cases raising the same issue. In contrast, Rehnquist's opinions reflect the approach of a monist, someone for whom a single principle, usually at a high level of abstraction, controls and resolves a controversy. Unlike Jackson, Rehnquist does not find himself torn between conflicting beliefs and obligations, instead finding the outcome inevitable. While Jackson remained an unpredictable Justice, Rehnquist's legal canon is remarkably consistent.

Keywords: William Rehnquist, Robert Jackson, Supreme Court, justices, judges, law clerks, clerkships, jurisprudence

JEL Classification: K1

Suggested Citation

Ray, Laura, A Law Clerk and His Justice: What William Rehnquist Did Not Learn from Robert Jackson (1996). Indiana Law Review, Vol. 29, 1996, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1967694

Laura Ray (Contact Author)

Widener University - Delaware Law School ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE 19803-0406
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
82
Abstract Views
762
Rank
543,429
PlumX Metrics