Earl Warren Joins Supreme Court
Earl Warren on this day was given an interim appointment as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. His appointment was necessitated by the sudden death of Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, and the need for a full Court at the beginning of the court’s term.
Warren’s appointment was not confirmed by the Senate until March 1, 1954.
Warren’s name became synonymous with civil liberties as Chief Justice of the activist, pro-civil libertarian Warren Court. He wrote the Court’s opinion in Brown v. Board of Education (May 17, 1954) and is credited with working to achieve a unanimous opinion in what everyone recognized would be a landmark and extremely controversial decision. The court during his years as Chief Justice is generally referred to as the “Warren Court.”
He also wrote the majority opinion in Miranda v. Arizona on June 13, 1966. Warren had been a tough “law and order” prosecutor in Oakland, California, in the 1930s, and his Miranda opinion, which imposed significant restraints on police tactics, represented a complete turnabout in this thinking on this issue.
Read: Jim Newton, Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made (2006)
Learn more: Mark Tushnet, The Warren Court in Historical and Political Perspective (1996)
And more: James F. Simon, Eisenhower vs. Warren: The Battle for Civil Rights and Liberties (2018)
Watch a 1952 (pre-Supreme Court) interview with Warren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szb7ifgN67w
Learn about the Warren Court (1953-1969) from the Supreme Court historical society here