Essay on Warren E. Burger Biography is published for informational purposes only. The free papers are not written by our writers, they are contributed by users, so we are not responsible for the content of this free sample paper. If you want to buy a quality Essay on Essay on Warren E. Burger Biography at affordable prices please use our essay writing services offered by EssayEmpire.

Warren Earl Burger was the fifteenth chief justice of the United States and enjoyed the fourth-longest tenure as head of the Supreme Court. Coming from a working-class family of modest means in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger took work at an early age to help out with his family's finances. He was a good student and won a scholarship to Princeton, which he declined because it would not have paid for all of his expenses. While selling insurance, Burger attended evening school, taking extension courses at the University of Minnesota from 1925 to 1927. He worked as an accountant while attending Saint Paul College of Law (now William Mitchell College of Law), from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1931.

For over twenty years Burger worked for the Saint Paul law firm of Boyesen, Otis & Faricy (1931-1953), where he became a named partner in 1935. He worked primarily in the fields of probate, real estate, and corporate law, meanwhile gaining experience in political matters. His active role in Republican politics in Minnesota resulted in his leading the delegation that sought to nominate the Minnesota governor Harold Stassen for president at the 1952 Republican National Convention. It was Burger who ultimately announced the transfer of the delegation's votes from Stassen to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, which gave the latter enough votes to win the nomination. Eisenhower proceeded to win the presidential election. Before the end of the year, Burger was named assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Claims Division (later the Civil Division). Burger did not have the type of practice, national reputation as a lawyer, or past experience in government that would have warranted his appointment; although his general competency as a lawyer was no doubt confirmed, Burger's role in the 1952 convention was what brought him to the attention of the Eisenhower administration.

Burger's role within the Claims Division, similarly, was not that of a brilliant trial lawyer who won cases others could not have won, nor was it that of an incisive intellectual who developed creative legal theories that led to victories in the appellate courts. Rather, Burger's role was primarily that of an administrator of a large government office. His role was to supervise the legal work of his office's attorneys, who were often younger than he was, and ensure that the legal positions taken by his office were consistent with the policy preferences of the Eisenhower administration. Burger's administrative ability and political loyalty led President Eisenhower to appoint Burger to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1956, where he served for thirteen years.

On an appeals court that was often divided over decisions in criminal cases, Burger led the judges opposed to expanding the rights of criminal defendants--that is, persons who were charged with crimes and whose guilt or innocence was to be determined by a jury or court. Burger wanted to give more deference to trial judges, prosecutors, and the police in the proving of guilt and to provide fewer protections for defendants. By taking this position, he established a reputation as a conservative "law and order" judge.

He also notably remained untainted by any ethical scandal. In 1969 President Richard Nixon nominated Burger for the position of chief justice of the United States. It was not Burger's legal brilliance that brought him to the attention of President Nixon; rather, it was his speeches--which might be referred to as political speeches--on limiting the rights of defendants. Nixon's nomination of Burger fulfilled a campaign promise to counter the Court's judicial activism under Earl Warren by appointing justices who, in his view, followed conservative philosophy. Burger was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of seventy-four to three.

Chief Justice Burger served on the Supreme Court for over seventeen years and during that time wrote more than 250 opinions. Under Chief Justice Warren, the Court had extended protections for those charged with crimes and decided cases abolishing school segregation and protecting the right to vote. Burger came to disappoint those who wanted a wholesale repudiation of the Warren Court era. He helped slow the rate at which change took place and in some cases diluted the effects of prior decisions, but he did little to overrule the decisions that had spurred political debate. The Burger Court did take a more limited view of the rights of those accused of crimes and was also more deferential to the states, under the banner of federalism.

But it also recognized new rights and expanded others in the areas of welfare, abortion, gender-based discrimination, and affirmative action. This approach continued for Burger's entire term as chief justice. At times he continued the course of the Warren Court, as illustrated by his opinion in segregation cases like Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971). Yet he also refused to extend the remedy for segregation to surrounding schools districts in Milliken v. Bradley (1974). In other cases, like his dissent in Bivens vs. Six Unknown Named Agents, Burger tried to stem the expansion of judicial remedies but was unable to muster a majority on the Court. He served as chief justice until 1986, when he resigned to serve as chair of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Burger died in 1995 in Washington, D.C.

References:

1. Cushman, Clare, ed. The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1993. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1993.

2. Lamb, Charles M., and Stephen C. Halpern, eds. The Burger Court: Political and Judicial Profiles. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

3. Maltz, Earl M. The Chief Justiceship of Warren Burger, 1969-1986. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

4. Schwartz, Bernard. The Ascent of Pragmatism: The Burger Court in Action. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1990.

5. Schwartz, Bernard. The Burger Court: Counter-revolution or Confirmation? New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Free essays are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can order a term paper, research paper or custom TOPIC at our site which offers professional essay writing services. Get your high quality custom paper at relatively cheap prices. EssayEmpire is the best solution for those who seek help in essay writing related to TOPIC and other relevant topics.