Lock Up De Judge

Jesse Walker | January 5, 2007

ABC reports:

The FBI's file on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist made public more than a year after his death indicates the Nixon and Reagan administrations enlisted its help in blunting criticism of him during confirmation hearings.

The file also offers insight into the hallucinations and other symptoms of withdrawal that Rehnquist suffered when he was taken off a prescription painkiller in 1981. A doctor was cited as saying that Rehnquist, an associate justice of the Supreme Court at the time, tried to escape the hospital in his pajamas and imagined that the CIA was plotting against him.

The most enticing tidbit in the files:

In one previously secret memo from 1971, an FBI official wrote, "No persons interviewed during our current or 1969 investigation furnished information bearing adversely on Rehnquist's morals or professional integrity; however …" The next third of the page is blacked out, under the disclosure law's exception for matters of national security.

Elsewhere in Reason: In 2005 I interviewed the historian David J. Garrow about the long history of incapacitated justices sitting on the Supreme Court bench. At one point he bemoaned the fact that "in all the coverage of the chief justice's thyroid cancer battle, there's been virtually no mention of his disability in the early '80s, his excessive dependence on pain medication for his longtime back ailment."

Comments

Warren|1.5.07 @ 11:20AM|#

I'd be shocked to find out there was a sitting justice that wasn't on psychoactive drugs.

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|1.5.07 @ 11:28AM|#

So what, I don't get it. I mean, it isn't like Rehnquist was a drug trafficker like Richard Paey. One might think that you were implying there is a double standard.

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tomWright|1.5.07 @ 11:32AM|#

Well, This explains an awful lot of awful decisions.

And considering cases like Kelo and Raich, has anyone considered mandatory drug testing for the current justices?

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|1.5.07 @ 11:40AM|#

Interesting:

In 1971, Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst directed the FBI to conduct investigations of witnesses who were planning to testify at a Senate hearing against Rehnquist's confirmation. Fifteen years later during the Reagan administration, the FBI was enlisted to conduct background checks on witnesses who were scheduled to testify against Rehnquist's nomination to become chief justice.

I wonder what the purpose was for having the FBI conduct background checks on Rehnquist's critics?

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|1.5.07 @ 11:43AM|#

This would make a great movie. I see Bill Murray playing the part of Rehnquist ala "Where the Buffalo Roam." It could be called "Fear and Loathing in the Courtroom."

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|1.5.07 @ 12:07PM|#

So, how many cases are they going to review and/or nullify?

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|1.5.07 @ 12:13PM|#

there's been virtually no mention of his disability in the early '80s, his excessive dependence on pain medication for his longtime back ailment

I read he was dependent on Placidyl, which is a sedative, not a painkiller. Whatever....

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The Wine Commonsewer|1.5.07 @ 12:33PM|#

I thought drugs were harmless.

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Warren|1.5.07 @ 1:03PM|#

TWC,
Only when used responsibly.

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