Introduction

Hello everyone. Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Warren Burger. You may know me as the fifteenth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Sept. 19, 1907, I became the fourth of eventually seven Burger children in my family. If you want to know the definition of a working-class family, look no further than mine. Growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, wasn’t always easy. My father, Charles, was a cargo inspector for the railroad and a traveling salesman. My mother, Katherine, was a homemaker. Things were especially tough when I had to pick up a newspaper delivery job at the age of nine to help with family finances.

Although I was busy and had a lot of worries as a young boy, I had time for fun as an athlete. I competed in hockey, football, track, and swimming.

After high school, I had to work even harder because I worked for an insurance company while taking night classes at the University of Minnesota. The St. Paul College of Law called my name soon after and the rest is history.

After graduating with honors from the St. Paul College of Law in 1931, I became more and more involved in Republican politics.  I was a big factor in the nomination of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 because of my delivery of the Minnesota delegation. The following year, Eisenhower returned the favor and made me assistant U.S. attorney general for the Justice Departments Civil Division. Two years later, he nominated me to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

My 13 years on the Court of Appeals were eventful to say the least. People said that I was a “law-and-order” judge when it came to the rights of the criminally accused. My big issue was with the Fifth Amendment. The courts were going in the favor of criminals left and right and it was an impediment to justice.

Fortunately, it was because of this motto that President Richard Nixon named me Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. At the age of 61, I was Chief Justice and it was the hope of President Nixon that I was to rid the Supreme Court of liberalism left by the Chief preceding me, Earl Warren.

My court upheld the 1966 Miranda decision requiring police to fully explain a person’s rights upon arrest and we even ruled against the Nixon Administration’s hopes to invalidate the need for a search warrant in cases of domestic surveillance in United States v. U.S. District Court (1972).

Arguably my most famous moment as Chief came in 1974.

President Nixon was in the middle of the infamous Watergate scandal and my court unanimously gave him the order to release White House tape recordings revealing damaging evidence.

In the aftermath of all of this, Nixon shocked the nation and resigned as President of the United States.

Before I conclude my introduction, I want to touch briefly on my workings with the First Amendment. My court’s rulings helped form a lot of the First Amendment law you live today.

In 1971 during the case of Lemon v. Kurtzman, I stated three things regarding legislation about religion. First, I said that the statute must have a secular legislative purpose. Second, I stated that its principal or primary effect must be one that neighter advances nor inhibits religion. Last, I proclaimed that the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.

I dealt with obscenity in Miller v. California (1973), gag orders on the press in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart (1976), and prohibiting student speech that is vulgar and lewd in Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986).

Putting a stamp on arguably the most important Amendment is one legacy that I’m very proud of. It is also something that I will touch on in my next blog post.

As for now I will say have a great weekend and I will touch base with you all again very soon.

Sources:

http://www.biography.com/people/warren-burger-9231479#synopsis

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/robes_burger.html

http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/chief-justices/warren-burger-1969-1986/

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/burgers-birthday-his-courts-rulings-shaped-first-amendment-law