That more than economics. If you ruffled the feathers is someone powerful, that gets you the running and to complain to the publisher of the stories about those things happening. We were fortunate through the 70s and almost all our careers to work for people who are strong and upright in that area and just let the chips fall where they may, where the work way you. Coming up, booktv presents after words, an hourlong program where we invite guest host of interview authors. This economical journalist, john jenkins and his book, the partisan the life of William Rehnquist. And i. , the publisher of cq press details the early career and a 33 year Supreme Court tenure at the former chief justice. He talks the Supreme Court reporter and a biographer for Justice Oconnor and scalia, Joan Biskupic you. Welcome, john jenkins. Were here to talk about your new book, the partisan the life of William Rehnquist. Im going to start with one general question, just to give our viewers a sense of who the chief justice is and why William Rehnquist was important. Thereve only been 17 sheets, correct . Guest thats correct. Host what does the chief justice of the United States doing an import into volume rent is and then his chronology. Guest the chief has two roles in the judicial system. He serves the chief amount among amount equal is on he finds the opinion in the majority. He leads a discussion that conference. So he is an Important Role to play among the nine justices and hes the key guide hair. Particularly when hes in the majority. But the other thing that rehnquist was an achieved is really ahead of the entire Administrative Office of the u. S. Courts. Runs the entire court system and thats a low part of administrative responsibility at the other justices dont have. But thats a chief justice does. Lets go back to the beginning. Born october 1st around this time of the 1924. His father was a paper sales and another was a homemaker, but she was the dominant force in the household, right . Talk a little bit about mrs. Rehnquist in a little bit about how she got him to change his middle name, which was what got change the course of his life. Guest well, she was very superstitious in terms of the middle name. They named him William Donald rehnquist when he was born on october 1st in 1924. His mother though believed she was really a very, very fascinating woman. She spoke five languages in addition to english. Dont ask me what those 54. Theyre on a footnote in the book. But she was very learned. Very proud of her education at the university of wisconsin. Both father and mother were syscon centers. They havent traveled far at all and they were very, very middleclass folks in the depression and the father is a paper salesman had gotten through high school. He actually lost the family house. He was the breadwinner and in 1939, his house was sold at auction in shorewood, wisconsin and this little d. C. Suburb of milwaukee. There was sold for the debt on, which was 7000. So the family had been through some very dire straits. They were also very conservative they were america firsters, which meant they didnt want america to be in world war ii. They were against the new deal and franklin roosevelt. They were a very, very conservative household. Whether conservatives and came on the parents part, who knows except it was, when i stood in a research, pretty commonly found in that particular suburb at that time. The folks i interviewed told me. When rehnquist was going into the army, just to jump up a little bit on the last name, when he was going into the army, his mother who is superstitious of rehnquist also is very superstitious. And so, his mother believed that if he had a last name, a middle name they started with age and had five letters in it, that that would be good but for him. A numerologist had told her that and so, when he was going into the army, he researches genealogy and found he had a grandmother and his mother site whose last name is hubs. So he changed his name himself and he told Harry Blackmun, he seatmate on the court, wrote a note one day and said he changed in high school, but his recollection was probably incorrect because he changed it when he signed up for the United States army in early 1943, when he enlisted in the army. At that point, they asked him what his middle name was and he said hubs. And that was his name. He was always william h. Rehnquist after that. The next understand because he told the story to reporters at the end of his life but the difference being that made a difference and i remember one of my colleagues quit, he wouldve been just a justice of the peace without it. One of the more crucial moves in his life, after he leaves milwaukee and goes to Stanford Law School is becoming a clerk for Supreme CourtCourt Justice robert jackson. Tell us how that came about because i want to lead and to which you have with some of the conservatives among blacks than whites. Guest great. Jackson was i think seeing my family than i say great justice. He had been the prosecutor at the nuremberg war charles. He actually taken time off from the court and gone to nuremberg and been the chief prosecutor and then came back to the court. So rehnquist graduates from the Stanford Law School early at the end of 1952. He was actually in the class that wouldve graduated a semester later, the rehnquist finished his work. He was so smart he got out early. So it was clear when i was researching through his papers and lucky not the diaries that he had actually, that were on were on deposit with his papers, which were fascinating. He had six notebooks that were filled with his reminiscences, desires and early comments and memoirs. One of the things that was clear was that he really saw himself destined for some important job. He actually on the court probably are certainly somewhere in government because he had asked himself as a student, he actually written, what now, honorable w. H. Rehnquist with it . S. A law school student, as an early vasko student. What now . Said thats really fascinating because it really said that he had this feeling of almost destiny to be on the court when he was very, very young. But it was this confluence of events, were jackson plays a role that allowed him to do that. He had a professor who had taken an interest in him and so the professor was friends with robert h. Jackson and jackson was going to be coming out to stanford. You have to remember it was hard to get out there from washington. Were in the early. It was rare for someone from stanford. Stanford had a law school can rehnquist was whip smart, but it was hard for someone who wasnt in the ivy league to be a clerk, court was very much an honor and he was hard. The justices in those days, jackson had been working with one clerk. So maybe nine people or 10, 11 people you get these clerkships. Not many. And i remember it right that Justice Jackson came up for the groundbreaking . What brought them out there . Guest two things. What brought them not least the bohemian growth. So there was this Bohemian Grove in a place called mantra brio, california. Ive actually worked on another story, so i know that plays well. Its a mans club, all men. Two dozen men getting together at a summer camp and they do it every year as there was a Bohemian Club in San Francisco at posted this confab corporate decision makers, government luminaries, diplomats, very important people. The equivalent today of some of the big events that have been announced then and when you see folks in short sleeves rubbing elbows with each other. So jackson actually was coming out in august of that year, 1952, to do that. So his professors at first he asked jackson, there is a groundbreaking at the law school. And then the professor surprised rehnquist a scene im going to arrange for you to meet him. The interesting thing is that rehnquist did meet him and met with jackson and jackson just kind of didnt even really interview him. He rehnquist had a swedish ancestry, which you type about a lot. It was a talking point of his always. So jackson got off on this tangent of talking about his swedish clients he had appeared and told rehnquist in stories that rehnquist really didnt get a chance to talk about himself very much. He didnt think he done a good job. He said it was nice to meet you and that was that. So rehnquist doesnt hear anything now for a couple of weeks. And so, he starts getting worried and he writes a letter to jackson and since im in my last semester of law school. I really have to kind of figure out what i want to do. He says ive got a number of interviews and offers in california. It doesnt look like it strew, but he says this. Rehnquist later said of the century. He confessed to jackson that wasnt true. So rehnquist says ive got these offers in any tunic a decision. Can you help me out here . It was really smart and jackson comes back and he says, you know, i think we can use a second man. I think we can use a second man and maybe by march of next year the workload will be really hard for one man. In those days, they were the clerks. So rehnquist and petitions, he says that could come earlier. I think to be there in january. So jacksons has come out in january and basically that was it. Rehnquist, right and, right time. The timing was perfect and rehnquist writes this little studebaker, which he tells about in his memoir about the Supreme Court. He drives this little studebaker to washington with no heater and gets caught in a blizzard, but he guess they are and shows up at the court and starts working. And he is in ought of the Supreme Court in the corinthian columns and the screenplays hes now in. Right. Thats a really big week for him. Obviously he had proven himself academically, very smart, got into school as he applied to. But heres a crucial move for Justice Jackson. But it also leads to something that haunts him the rest of his career and that has to do this now most of the brown v. Board of education case. Why dont you tell us what his role was and why turn out to be controversial. He wrote a number of memos in those memos stumbled out on stage in a very red sequins over many years later and they came back to haunt him. So he gets there and percolating up through the courts already going back to 1950 private cases of the naacp legal and Education Defense Fund that Thurgood Marshall is actually bringing and hes building that, sort of brick by brick, block by block. Thurgood marshall not yet of course a justice of the Supreme Court. Hes making the case that plessy versus ferguson, which defined the acceptability of separate but equal. Theyre making a case of the naacp that this cannot remain the law of the land. And its pretty clear that the case that is scoring to become a very, very important one for the court is actually the year that rehnquist is barrys brown v. Board of education. And so, which churns out a fact to be the case that strikes the doctrine down. Very, very important in a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. So rehnquist, part of the rule of the clearcase to offer her his advice and opinions to his boss about these cases. So rehnquist writes a memo about brown versus board of education and he basically says that plessy should stand. Rehnquist offers this memo, gives it to jackson. Jackson doesnt im sure jackson read the memo, but he puts it away and of course jackson is one of the nine justices unanimously vote to strike down plessy versus ferguson and this important case, which finally decided in 1954. Whos actually reheard comer vera could again be hereafter. Host the significance that it gets rid of separate but equal. Guest that rehnquist was against the holding in that case. Rehnquist believed as a Supreme Court clerk that that was the wrong outcome and argued passionate way. If think back when i was looking at his early years at stanford, its clear this is not some email. This is not something new to him. This is really in his firmament, he believes that plessy is right and should be affirmed as he says in the memo. There are some other cases come in many cases at this point coming along that the court is having to decide whether to ask that in there actually is another case that the Voting Rights case, but a discrimination case and that is called terry versus atoms. So it also comes at the same year. The issue is whether or not this club in texas, which is called the texas jaybird club is a Democratic Social Club that if you are not a member of the club, you cannot vote in the primary and only white people are allowed to be in the Texas Chamber club. The issue in that case they should dictate this petition and hear the case . And rehnquist writes to memos about terry versus atoms, basically saying the right of Free Association, again going way back to the conservatism of his youth and probably his parents and such. He writes in to more memos to douglas, to jackson, asserting very, very strongly that the rate of Free Association is such that the Supreme Court should let this case go, leave it alone and also espousing some views that are basic late, he says about time we understand that white people and black people dont like each other how much does move on. And so, those memos, all of which are now in the archives of jackson, but those archives were closed. So its only when they start leaking out, first won in 1971, brown versus board of education, terry versus atoms that was i actually reveal for the first time an article in the New York Times. When you say 1971, disneys nominated to be an associate justice. Let me ask you about the terry versus atoms met us. He said that puts him squarely on record as an ardent segregationist. You chalk up a lot of it to his area, but many of the other clerks at the Supreme Court during this time were of the same era. Many justices, all of the justices were even from a previous era. He seems to have taken isuzu but a bit further than maybe even his parents held. What is your idea of the race other than just the time and wisconsin was conservative, but didnt stand out. Guest youre absolutely much about this and struggled over this really in terms of i want to bircher eight am i to portray his site very, very accurately and fairly, pulling no punches, but at the same time, not landing them if theyre not served. So i thought about it a lot. The issue for rehnquist was he believes so passionately and individual freedom ended his day, i dont know whether the phrase libertarian was one that was bandied about that much, but thats where he was coming from and i think his views, which i say in the book were clearly recessed and segregationist, even bystanders at the time, considering standards of the time come asserts a more extreme. We are going to leave the Program Going back back to president obama making a statement about the fiscal cliff though. Essential premise of my campaign for president was to change the tax code that was too skewed towards the wealthy at the expense of working middleclass americans. Tonight, weve done that. Thanks to the votes of democrats and republicans in congress, i will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 of americans, while preventing a middleclass tax hike that could have sent the economy back into a recession and obviously had a severe impact on families all across america. I want to thank all the leaders of the house and senate, in particular, i want to thank the work that was done by an extraordinary Vice President , joe biden, as well as leader harry reid, Speaker Boehner, nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell. Everybody worked very hard and i appreciate it and show, once again, thank you for your great work. Under this law, more than 90 of americans and 90 of Small Businesses will not see their income taxes go up. Millions of families will continue to receive tax credits to help raise their kids and send them to college. Companies will continue to receive tax credits for the research they do, investors make an Clean Energy Jobs that they create. 2 million americans out of work, but out there looking, pounding payment every day for continue to receive Unemployment Benefits as long as they are actively looking for a job. But i think we all recognize this law is just one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden the opportunity for everybody. The fact is the deficit is still too high and were still investing too little into things that we need for the economy to grow as fast as it should. And thats why Speaker Boehner and i provisionally try to negotiate a larger agreement that would put this country on a path to paying down its debt, while also putting americans back to work, rebuilding roads and bridges and providing investments in areas like education and job training. Unfortunately, there just wasnt enough support or time for that kind of large agreement in a lameduck session of congress. And that failure comes at a cost us the messy nature of the process over the past several weeks has made is this more certain and consumers is confident. But we are continuing to chip away at this problem, stepbystep. Last year i signed into law 1. 7 trillion in deficit reduction. Tonights agreement further reduces the deficit by raising 620 billion in revenue from wealthiest households in america and there will be more deficit reduction as congress decides what to do about the automatic spendi