THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 26, 1995 TAG: 9506260034
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Warren Earl Burger, whose chiseled features and formidable mane of white hair made him the very model of an idealized chief justice, may be best remembered for leading the counter-revolution that wasn't.
Burger, a conservative jurist who died Sunday at the age of 87 from congestive heart failure, and his colleagues on the Burger Court were widely expected to roll back the liberal doctrines of the Earl Warren Court that preceded them.
Instead, during Burger's 17-year tenure as chief justice, from 1969 to 1986, the Warren Court legacy survived. In fact, it thrived.
Though the late chief justice was appointed as a law-and-order judge, the Burger Court of the 1970s and early 1980s is best remembered for rulings that established a woman's right to abortion, ordered crosstown busing for school desegregation, outlawed sex discrimination by the government, upheld affirmative action for minorities and - at least for a time - struck down the death penalty.
And it helped define the bounds of presidential power, forcing President Nixon, the man who appointed Burger, to turn over the crucial Watergate tapes to prosecutors. In the Pentagon Papers case, it denied Nixon the authority to prevent the publication of classified information.
Those rulings did not always reflect Burger's views. In the court's private conferences, he told his colleagues that he favored overruling such precedents as Miranda vs. Arizona, which required the police to warn suspects of their rights, and the so-called ``exclusionary rule,'' which required that illegally obtained evidence be excluded from a trial.
But despite his persistent efforts, Burger was unable to muster a majority for his opinions. In a series of rulings on criminal justice, the court trimmed around the edges on matters such as search-and-seizure and police identifications but stopped short of overturning any of the liberal precedents of the Warren court.
Burger was comfortable with his work as chief justice.
``It's always been somewhat comforting to know,'' Burger said shortly after his retirement, ``that I have been castigated by so-called liberals for being too conservative and castigated by so-called conservatives for being too liberal. Pretty safe position to be in.''
President Clinton, in a statement issued Sunday from Little Rock, Ark., called Burger ``a strong, powerful, visionary chief justice who opened the doors of opportunity'' and said he ``will leave a lasting imprint on the court and on our nation.''
Critics in the media frequently referred to the Burger Court as rootless, leaderless, rudderless, fragmented, unpredictable, an enigma and nine justices in search of a theme.
``That's what freedom of the press is for - the freedom to make damn fool statements,'' he replied in a post-retirement interview.
There were critics outside the media as well.
The late Potter Stewart, a member of the Burger Court until he retired in 1981, likened Burger to a ship's ``show captain'' - good at taking women to dinner but unable to steer.
But while there were critics, there also were friends and sometimes reluctant supporters.
Those who worked for him - his law clerks and permanent staff members - described him as a caring boss.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a larger-than-life liberal who had little patience for Burger's leadership style, experienced in retirement a new relationship with the chief justice.
Forced by ill health to leave the court in 1975, Douglas told friends he was touched by Burger's concern and attentiveness.
There was praise Sunday from Virginia.
William and Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan said: ``I was deeply saddened to learn of Chief Justice Burger's death. He was a distinguished American, a great public servant, and rendered remarkably generous services to William and Mary as it's 20th Chancellor.''
From 1986 to 1993, Burger served as the school's chancellor. He was followed by Margaret Thatcher in the largely ceremonial position.
Only in criminal cases did the Burger Court accomplish some consistent remodeling of the Warren Court.
It expanded the power of the police to search vehicles, open fields and mobile homes; to stop passengers at airports, to question workers at factory gates and to detain travelers suspected of smuggling drugs across U.S. borders.
After his retirement from the court in 1986, Burger worked as unpaid chairman of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, organizing the celebrations of the Constitution's 200th anniversary in 1987 and the Bill of Right's 200th anniversary in 1989.
Born in St. Paul of Swiss-German Protestant stock, Burger spent his early life on a farm. The fourth of seven children, he attended public schools in St. Paul and worked his way through the University of Minnesota and the St. Paul College of Law (now Mitchell College of Law). Princeton University had awarded him a scholarship for college, but he turned it down, unable to meet other school expenses and contribute to his family's finances.
After obtaining a law degree in 1931, he practiced law in his home state for more than 20 years. When Burger married Elvera Stromberg in 1933, Harry A. Blackmun, who also would become a Nixon appointee to the high court, was his best man.
Burger, who had been a Republican Party loyalist, showed his political savvy in 1952 at the Republican National Convention. A floor manager for Harold E. Stassen, Burger sent word to the platform that Minnesota was switching its votes and sending Dwight D. Eisenhower over the top.
The next year, Eisenhower rewarded Burger. He became an assistant U.S. attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division. Three years later, in 1956, Eisenhower put Burger on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Burger served as chief justice of the Supreme Court for 17 years, longer than anyone else this century.
After his retirement, Burger, until recent years, spoke regularly at judicial conventions. He published a book just this year: ``It is So Ordered: A Constitution Unfolds,'' in which he recounted 14 major Supreme Court cases. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic with color photo
Warren Burger served as chief justice on the U.S. Supreme Court
from 1969 to 1986. The court was expected to roll back some of the
liberal doctrines of the previous court, led by Earl Warren.
Instead, it retained many of them.
Landmark Rulings: Desegregation; Obscenity; Watergate Tapes
by CNB