A TRIBUTE TO WARREN E. BURGER

The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor*

A Chief Justice is always a special figure in American history, and indeed, only sixteen Justices have held that position since our Constitution was ratified. Warren E. Burger was the fifteenth Chief Justice, and his seventeen years in that capacity were distinguished by his energy and his efforts to improve the judicial system throughout the United States. His life and his service as Chief Justice have left their imprint on many aspects of our legal system.

Chief Justice Burger graduated magna cum laude in 1931 from Saint Paul College of Law, the earliest forerunner of William Mitchell College of Law. He was the president of his law school fraternity, Phi Beta Gamma, which, in uncanny foresight, conferred upon him the title of “Chief Justice.” Warren Burger could not have attended a traditional day law school. He had married and started a family and found it necessary to hold a full-time job in the insurance industry to support his family. If it were not for the opportunity that Saint Paul offered him to attend law school classes at night, he would have been unable to enter the legal profession.

Throughout his career, Chief Justice Burger had a profound interest in raising the quality of the work of the judicial branch by improving the management of the courts. As Chief Justice, he worked to make the Supreme Court-and all courts-more responsive to the needs of those who used them. He left a legacy to the most

Abstract

When the U.S. Supreme Court Justices took their seats at the beginning of the 2009 Term, the Bench looked different. Gone from the Bench, after nineteen years, was David H. Souter. He returned to his home in New Hampshire, a state he likes enormously. Justice Souter will be missed by his former colleagues and by advocates before the Court, by legal scholars nationwide and by all who follow the Court’s work and activities.

I was privileged to serve on the Court with Justice Souter for more than fifteen years. He was an admirable Justice and is a cherished friend. While serving on the Court, Justice Souter produced 157 majority opinions, 121 dissenting opinions, and 83 concurring opinions. He served as the Circuit Justice for both the First and the Third circuits. His opinions were always thoroughly researched and written, with full explanations of the facts, the issues, and the governing principles. He cut no corners and explained his reasoning in depth.

His writing was evidence of his scholarly nature. He was, after all, a Harvard Law School graduate, a Rhodes Scholar, a former New Hampshire trial court judge, a New Hampshire supreme court justice, and a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. His opinions, written while he was on the Supreme Court of the United States, were as methodical as they were measured. Justice Souter’s concurring opinion in Washington v. Glucksburg1 captured his judicial philosophy nicely. He wrote: “[T]he usual thinking of the common