The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had a crucial role in several education cases
During his tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist played a crucial role in several education cases. He was appointed to the Court as an associate justice by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971 and was elevated to the chief justice's position in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. In 1973 he wrote a dissent in
Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado arguing against extension of federal court oversight for desegregation to school systems that did not have
de jure segregation. Justice Rehnquist again dissented in the 1979 desegregation case
Columbus Board of Education v. Penick. He argued that the system wide desegregation plan upheld by the Court's majority constituted "as complete and dramatic a displacement of local authority by the federal judiciary as is possible in our federal system." After assuming the mantle of chief justice, he authored the majority opinion in the 1991 case of
Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell, in which the Court eased the standard under which a school district could be found to have complied with a desegregation order. In 1995 the Chief Justice wrote the majority opinion in the Court's most recent school desegregation case,
Missouri v. Jenkins, in which he stressed the importance of local control in regard to operating schools and the need for federal courts to return that control to school districts that are "operating in compliance with the Constitution." Arguably his most important education case opinions came in the companion University of Michigan cases concerning race-based admissions policies. He issued the main dissent in
Grutter v. Bollinger, contending that the university law school's use of race as a factor to achieve a "critical mass" of underrepresented minorities was nothing more than a "naked effort to achieve racial balancing." Writing for the majority in
Gratz v. Bollinger, he struck down the undergraduate system's policy because it automatically awarded bonus points to certain minority applicants. The Chief Justice also wrote for the majority in
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, which upheld the constitutionality of state issued private school vouchers to private sectarian schools In addition, during his tenure as both an associate and chief justice the Court examined the constitutionality of prayer in school (
Wallace v. Jaffree), recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance (
Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow), and the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms (
Stone v. Graham). This past term the Court decided the issue of Ten Commandment displays on government property in a pair of cases. In
McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Chief Justice Rehnquist voted with a minority of justices who would have upheld the county's display. However, writing for a plurality of the justices in
Van Orden v. Perry, he noted that the government display in that case was a far more passive use of the Ten Commandments than that which confronted students on a daily basis in
Stone. Following the Chief Justice's death, President Bush withdrew the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr., to fill Justice O'Connor's seat and instead nominated Judge Roberts as Chief Justice.
Education WeekBy Mark Walsh
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