I. Introduction

• •how an activist Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court can shape national policy



• •individual rights

II. The Supreme Court and the American constitutional system

• •activism vs. judicial restraint



• •majority rule vs. individual rights

III. Warren's career

• •Youth



• •California career
• •private practice (1914-1920)
• •District Attorney of Alameda Country (1920-1938)
• •Attorney General of California (1938-1942)
• •Governor of California (1942-1950)
• •Republican candidate for Vice President (1948)
• •supporter of Dwight Eisenhower (1952)
• •Appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1953)



• •Judicial activism vs. judicial restraint
• •conservative activism prior to 1937
• •judicial restraint (1937-1953)
• •Warren's belief that the court's restraint had permitted the power of government to grow too strong



• •Important "Warren Court" decisions
• •Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
• •rights of individuals facing investigation by Congressional committees
• •Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
• •Griffin v. Illinois (1956), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

IV. Conclusion

• •Warren's power lay in ability to unite court and to direct it in a consistent direction



• •But was he a liberal (civil rights, one-man-one-vote, rights of criminals) or a conservative (limit the power of government)?



• •The Supreme Court is always political