Burger Court
| Burger Court | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Established | 1969 |
| Dissolved | 1986 |
| Country | United States |
| Location |
Supreme Court Building Washington, D.C. |
| No. of positions | 9 |
The Burger Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1969 to 1986, when Warren Burger served as Chief Justice of the United States. Burger succeeded Earl Warren as Chief Justice after the latter's retirement, and Burger served as Chief Justice until his retirement, at which point William Rehnquist was nominated and confirmed as Burger's replacement. The Burger Court has been described as a "transitional" court which continued the liberal legacy of the Warren Court but transitioned into the more conservative Rehnquist Court. Burger remained a symbol of the conservative "retrenchment" promised by President Richard Nixon in the 1968 election, but Burger was often overshadowed by the liberal William Brennan and the more conservative William Rehnquist. The Burger Court had a less generous interpretation of the protections offered by the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment than those of the Warren Court, but the Burger Court did not overrule any of the major precedents set by the Warren Court.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Warren Burger as the replacement for the retiring Earl Warren. Warren had attempted to retire in 1968, but President Lyndon Johnson's nomination of Associate Justice Abe Fortas as Chief Justice was successfully filibustered by the Senate Republicans. Fortas resigned from the court in 1969 following an ethics scandal, and Burger was confirmed the next month. The Burger Court thus began with Burger and seven veterans of the Warren Court: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, and Thurgood Marshall. Nixon attempted to fill Fortas's vacant seat, but Nixon's nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell were both voted down by the Senate. Fortas's replacement, Harry Blackmun, was finally confirmed in 1970; the 391-day vacancy was the longest since the 1860s. Black and Harlan both died in 1971, and Nixon replaced them with Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist. In 1975, Douglas stepped down from the court, and President Gerald Ford appointed John Paul Stevens to replace him. In 1981, Stewart retired, and President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to replace him. O'Connor was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. The era of the Burger Court ended in 1986 when Burger retired; Burger was succeeded as Chief Justice by William Rehnquist, who was elevated to the position of Chief Justice by President Reagan.
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