1891-1974
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

A Revolution Made by fudges.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower once called his ap- Pointment of Earl Warren to the Chief Justice of the United States "the biggest damnfool mistake I ever made." Eisenhower regretted his choice because he had appointed Warren for his "integrity, honesty, and middle-of-the-road philosophy" — and while Warren's tenure on the Supreme Court certainly embodied those first two qualities, it just as certainly rejected the third. In fact, under Warren the Court practiced what is called "judicial activism," rejecting the tendency of more-conservative Courts to make decisions based on precedent, following the reasoning and authority of earlier, similar decisions. The Warren court frequently overruled earlier decisions, greatly expanding Americans' civil and individual rights even when there was no precedent for such rulings. The changes in the constitutional rights of Americans during the Warren-...