- [Narrator] From Shorewood High to the highest court in the land, William Rehnquist's rise was remarkable.

Anchored in Midwestern roots, he rose to Chief Justice, shaping the court's course for a generation.

- He seems to have been thoroughly Milwaukeean for his entire life.

- [Narrator] His influence is carved into the history of the court and country to this day.

- One of his elementary school teachers asked the class what they wanted to do when they grow up, and he says, "I'm going to change the government."

- [Narrator] This is the story of William Rehnquist.

(upbeat percussive music) (film reel clicking) William Rehnquist was born October 1st, 1924, and grew up in Shorewood, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb that at the time was largely conservative.

- [Chad Oldfather] Went to Atwater Elementary and then onto Shorewood High School.

- [Narrator] Rehnquist was active on campus.

He was a hall monitor, involved in student government, and participated in sports among other activities.

- [Chad Oldfather] He was an editor of the school newspaper, "The Shorewood Ripples."

He's a captain of these block clubs that are essentially on the lookout for, you know, draft dodgers, or I think the quote was, "other subversive activity."

- [Narrator] Rehnquist graduated high school in 1942 and spent a semester at Kenyon College in Ohio before enlisting in the US Army Air Corps, working mostly as a weather forecaster in Africa.

His formal education would start after that.

- He ends up at Stanford University in California on the GI Bill, graduates with both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science.

And so he enrolls in graduate school at Harvard, which he attends for a year, gets a master's degree in government from Harvard, but concludes that Cambridge wasn't to his liking.

- [Narrator] Rehnquist returned to Stanford to attend law school where he was editor of "The Law Review" and became an academic standout along with another well-known classmate.

- One of his classmates was a woman named Sandra Day, later became Sandra Day O'Connor, later joined him on the US Supreme Court.

He finishes first in his class.

She finishes third in the class.

They date briefly during law school, but remained friends even after that.

- [Narrator] After finishing up at Stanford, Rehnquist served as a law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.

Rehnquist eventually settled down, married, started a family, and began practicing law in Phoenix where he became active in Republican politics.

His work on Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign earned him a role in the nation's capitol.

- His move from Phoenix to DC is when he joins the Justice Department in the Nixon administration as the Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel.

- [Narrator] In the fall of 1971, President Richard Nixon had the opportunity to appoint two justices to the US Supreme Court.

Nixon's advisors recommended Rehnquist to fill one of the open seats, but it would take some convincing.

- [John Mitchell] Another thought's occurred to me, Mr.

President- - Yeah, mm-hm.

- [John Mitchell] We might consider this Bill Rehnquist over here that everybody's so high on.

- [Richard Nixon] What are his qualifications?

- [John Mitchell] Well, he, as I say, is an arch-conservative, a great student.

- [Richard Nixon] Oh, I understand that, but I mean- - [John Mitchell] And a pretty tough guy.

- People in the administration get a strong sense of Rehnquist as very smart and very conservative, which is what they were looking for.

- [Narrator] And so began a grueling confirmation hearing.

Senators grilled Rehnquist about a controversial memo he wrote as a law clerk that supported the kind of racial segregation argued in Plessy v. Ferguson, and more recent allegations that he harassed minority voters in Arizona.

- He does have this record of not wanting or not advocating or endorsing governmental intervention into private discrimination.

- [Narrator] Rehnquist was ultimately confirmed to the US Supreme Court on December 10th, 1971.

President Nixon immediately called to congratulate him and to offer a pep talk.

- [Richard Nixon] I'll give you one, only one last bit of advice because you're gonna be independent, naturally, and that is don't let the fact that you were under heat change any of your views.

- [William Rehnquist] I'll remember that, Mr.

President.

- [Richard Nixon] Don't ever let, I told Warren Burger that, I said, "Just don't come down here and let the Washington social set change you."

Just be as mean and rough as they said you were, okay?

- Thanks, Mr.

President.

- Alright, good luck, bye.

- [William Rehnquist] Thanks a lot, bye.

- [Narrator] For many years on the court, Rehnquist was known as the Lone Ranger since he was often the only dissenter in decisions of the more liberal-minded Warren Court.

But slowly, many of Rehnquist's dissents became the law of the land as the balance of power in government shifted.

- It's worth noting that Supreme Court justices are often playing or trying to play a very long game.

They'll put points in their opinions, including lone dissenting opinions that they regard as essentially planting seeds, right?

They're trying to put an idea out there, hoping that it will later be picked up on.

- [Narrator] There's perhaps no clearer example of this than his descent in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion.

- And the position that he outlines in Roe v. Wade ends up being one of the basic building blocks in the Dobbs opinion from just a few years ago that overrules Roe v. Wade because the arguments he makes in dissent in Roe end up being the arguments that prevail in the context of Roe's overruling.

- The President has nominated Justice William Hubbs Rehnquist to replace Chief Justice Burger.

This afternoon, we begin our consideration of the nomination of Justice Rehnquist to be the 16th Chief Justice of the United States.

(light music) - [Narrator] In June of 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to replace the retiring Warren Burger as Chief Justice.

That set off another hard confirmation hearing.

- It turns out that the homes that he owned in Arizona had been subject to racially-restrictive covenants, which he claims not to have known were there, a covenant that says, you know, "This property can only ever be validly transferred to a white person."

- [Narrator] Rehnquist would be confirmed and quickly earned a reputation for being an effective manager of the court and for leading a significant conservative shift in American jurisprudence.

- He's conservative in the sense that a consistent thread running throughout his jurisprudence is hostility to broad federal power, right?

That he's attempting, in whatever ways are available to him, to restrict the power of the federal government, restrict the power of Congress to legislate broadly, and in doing so, to preserve more space for states to regulate for themselves.

- [Narrator] Rehnquist would stay on the bench as chief justice for 19 years, presiding over major cases that influenced federal power, individual liberties, and election law.

- He was very influential.

He certainly lived up to the claim that the young student at Atwater Elementary made about changing the government.

- [Narrator] Despite his stature as the nation's highest-ranking judge, Rehnquist largely kept a low profile and remained humble.

- [Chad Oldfather] He really did just seem to be someone who resisted being anything other than a regular guy.

Well, you don't run into people who say they didn't like him.

- [Narrator] After battling an aggressive form of thyroid cancer that caused him to miss more than 40 oral arguments, William Rehnquist died while still on the job on September 3rd, 2005, he was 80.

His long tenure on the court left an undisputed imprint on American law.

- [Chad Oldfather] The Supreme Court right now is very much a Supreme Court that I think William Rehnquist would be comfortable with, be proud of, would regard as a significant part of his legacy.

He helped set the tone for the conversation in a significant way, both by virtue of having been on the court for a very long period of time and having been chief justice for a very long period of time.

Certainly, William Rehnquist's fingerprints remain very much a part of American constitutional law.

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