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Pelosi Honors the Life of Chief Justice William Rehnquist

September 7, 2005

Pelosi Honors the Life of Chief Justice William Rehnquist

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted the following statement into the Congressional Record this morning on a House resolution honoring and recognizing the distinguished career, and achievements of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died on Saturday.

â€Å"Mr. Speaker, I join all of my colleagues in expressing our deepest condolences to the family of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. I mourn his loss, and I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Sensenbrenner, and the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, for introducing this resolution.

â€Å"I had the privilege yesterday of paying my respects to the Chief Justice as he lay in repose at the Great Hall. As I prayed, I thought of the great courage he displayed in the last few months, and his devotion to duty, even in the face of illness.

â€Å"As a nation, today we honor his memory and a lifetime of dedicated public service. Chief Justice Rehnquist was a man of great intellect and passion for the Supreme Court and its traditions, who was an outstanding leader and administrator of the judiciary. He was not only a student of history, an author of books on American history, but he also wrote chapters in our nation’s history as Chief Justice.

â€Å"As a law clerk to a great Justice, Robert Jackson, he formed an early appreciation for the institution that he would serve in a long and distinguished career. As Justice John Paul Stevens noted, Chief Justice Rehnquist set an exemplary example as leader of the Court. His colleagues uniformly spoke of his fair and impartial leadership of their proceedings, and of his efforts to prevent disagreements from becoming personal.

â€Å"His legacy is his steadfast and proud defense of an independent judiciary. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said on Sunday: ‘He regarded an independent judiciary as our country’s hallmark and pride, and in his annual reports, he constantly urged Congress to safeguard that independence.’

â€Å"I hope all of us in Congress will honor his legacy by preserving an independent judiciary. It is our oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United Statesâ€"and that means protecting an independent judiciary free of manipulation and intimidation.

â€Å"As The New York Times noted this morning, Chief Justice Rehnquist disapproved of recent Congressional attempts to ‘intimidate individual judges, strip federal courts of jurisdiction to decide certain constitutional challenges, and otherwise undermine the constitutional separation of powers and checks and balances.’ In his last annual report, the Chief Justice wrote: ‘A judge’s judicial acts may not serve as a basis for impeachment. Any other rule would destroy judicial independence.’

â€Å"An independent judiciary has served for more than two centuries as the guardian of our constitutional liberties, and as the words on the Supreme Court building so nobly state, has ensured ‘equal justice under law.’ We must preserve an independent judiciary and honor his memory by doing so.

â€Å"It is with sadness and respect that I extend my sympathies to Chief Justice Rehnquist's family and friends. I hope it is a comfort that so many people are praying for them at this sad time. He will long be remembered and missed.”