Chief Justice Earl Warren
President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as the fourteenth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1953. Warren had been the governor of California twice and was also on the republican ticket for Vice President under Thomas Dewey. It was assumed that Warren would pickup where his successor Fred Vinson left off as a conservative member of the Supreme Court, but instead Warren positioned himself as a liberal. When Warren took over as Chief Justice, justices who aligned with judicial activism and those who were in favor of judicial restraint divided the Supreme Court. One of Warren's goals was to renew the Supreme Courts role in defending individual rights.
Warren presided over several civil rights landmark cases including Brown vs. Board of Education I and II, which would spark the great civil rights movement. Warren also presided over cases such as McGowan vs. Maryland and also Tropp vs.
U.S. circuit judges Robert Katzmann, Damon Keith, ...
The Supreme Court in 1953, with Chief Justice Earl...
Earl Warren; Governor of California and Chief Just...Dulles.
In Brown vs. the Board of Education, Warren was greatly criticized for not appealing to the precedent (Plessy vs. Ferguson), and rather relying on common sense and fairness. In Chief Justices Warren's dissenting opinion of Brown vs. Board of Education I, he stated " Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments . ... To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community.. .that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone." His final statement emphasized that separate but equal facilities are inherently unequal, and also that such a doctrine deprived the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The unanimous decision uncoiled previous twists of the Constitution that focused solely on...