The Rehnquist Court should be remembered for one thing: Nailing the republic’s coffin. George W. Bush was not elected president in 2000. And yet he assumed the office with the blessing of the Supreme Court. And that violated everything that our republic should stand for. Chief Justice Rehnquist goes down in history as one of the worst Chief Justice’s in the history of America.
There is a direct causal responsibility that rests with Rehnquist and the other conservative partisans of the court. On his soul are the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis and over 1,800 dead American soldiers. On his soul is a deeply divided, horribly corrupted and dramatically less democratic America.
As we witness the criminal neglect that is now taking place in New Orleans, the trapped and dying survivors and the breakdown of government function, we are left to ask if the Chief Justice has left us with a dead America. Surely he did not know that the man he helped choose for President would be so terrible. But that is not the point. He made Bush President. He did so without the consent of the governed. And we now pay the horrible price for this transgression of democracy.
Many Americans do not now if George W. Bush was ever elected – not in 2000; not in 2004. That so many no longer have confidence in our electoral system is directly the result of the Supreme Court’s decision to stop the counting of ballots in Florida. Without a clear mandate of the people’s consent, there is not basis for the rule of law claimed by the state. Chief Rehnquist stole from every American the belief that our republic is a liberal democracy. And that is no small deed.
Chief Justice Rehnquist should be remembered for nothing other than his great error in judgment in leading the court to appoint George W. Bush as President. That’s because that act alone should mark anyone whose function is to defend the democracy itself. His reign was a shameful reign. Today I mourn not only the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist, but also the death of the American republic itself.