Earl Warren: The Chief Judge as California Progressive

COURSE DETAILS

Earl Warren was perhaps the most unassuming man ever to have such a consequential impact on American constitutional law and on the whole of American society. Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1969. Perhaps no figure in the history of the federal judiciary, save John Marshall, held and exercised the influence that Warren did during the middle decades of the 20th century.

Prior to his appointment to the Court, Warren had a successful career in public office. Starting out as the Alameda County district attorney, he became the California attorney general from 1939 to 1943, the governor of California from 1943 to 1953, the GOP’s vice-presidential candidate in 1948, and a presidential contender in 1952. The White House would have been the next logical step in his progression, but for Dwight Eisenhower and his subsequent nomination to be Chief Justice. Yet his considerable political acumen, honed from years in the arena, enabled him to emerge as the principled leader of the “Warren Court.”

Ably assisted by a bloc of liberal justices — principally Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and William J. Brennan — Warren orchestrated nothing short of a revolution in American jurisprudence. Constitutional interpretation as performed by the federal judiciary can be neatly divided into the time before Warren and the time after.

He was simply that significant.

FACULTY

Rudolph Carmenaty, Deputy Commissioner, Nassau County Department of Social Services