Rehnquist Court Era Analysis

The Rehnquist Court Era ended in 2005 with his death in Arlington, Virginia. His influence on the Court has been one of the most palatable of the last century. Rehnquist was the fourth longest serving Chief Justices in U.S. history. His confirmation was not met without controversy. Yet once on the court he proved himself to be beloved by his colleagues and as Chief Justice was able to shape the direction of the court throughout his tenure. Throughout his time on the nation’s highest court he would seek to enhance the power of states to expand their abilities to construct policies, as he sought to limit federal power. This culminated successfully with the striking down of laws under the Commerce Power in U.S. versus Lopez.
However, as a Chief Justice he would often act as a writer and arbitrator of majority opinions to maintain past precedent and to moderate the decisions of the court. At times even upholding precedent, which he vehemently dissented from originally. Rehnquist’s time on the court was marked by his flexibility in his decisions, as he would write opinions for both the liberal and conservative sides of the court. His approach differs starkly from the other conservative justices on the court; in comparison the conservative firebrand Justice Scalia, he valued tradition and compromise over orthodoxy.
The confirmation of his successor was …show more content…
Usery would be overturned in 1985 by Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, where it established that the federal government did in fact have this authority under the Commerce Clause. Rehnquist maintained his previous position in his dissent where in emphatically rejected the notion of granting federal authority in such an important matter, “The true "essence" of federalism is that the States as States have legitimate interests which the National Government is bound to respect even though its laws are supreme”. (San