Earl Warren Cheif Justice Of The Supreme

Court Essay, Research Paper

Earl Warren, better known as a chief justice who led the Supreme Court of the United States in making difficult decisions in changes with civil rights laws and criminal cases, was an American jurist and political leader. Warren was born on March 19, 1891, in Los Angeles California. He attended the University of California for his education, and was admitted to the bar in 1914. There he held different offices in local government and practiced the law in the San Francisco area.

Being a liberal Republican, in 1938 Warren was elected attorney general of California. Four years later, after being in office increasing his reputation as a foe racketeer, Warren was elected governor of California. With his progressive policies Warren received huge support from both Democrats and Republicans to gain the reelection for governor again in 1950. He had reached the top of his political career, after loosing an election in 1948 being a Republican candidate for vice president.

Receiving his appointment sooner than expected, Earl Warren did not wait too long to begin his tenure. Warren gained his position as a chief justice in the Supreme Court of the United States in the center chair early October 1953. His first two months with the court flew by fast with no major cases, while everyone focused on the upcoming case of school desegregation.

Warren waited another six months before receiving the chance to announce his first major opinion, in the decision in the case Brown. Instead of commenting on the 14th Amendment, he spent his time agreeing with the arguments of Thurgood Marshall, that separated schools are actually unequal.

A year later, after Warren had already convinced the rest of the court that schools should be desegregated, on May 31, 1955 he announced that all schools should have local courts supervising the schools, in which some cases meant the courts taking over the school district.

In 1966 Warren and his court had another major decision to deal with, Miranda v. State of Arizona. The case dealt with criminal suspects and their rights. The court’s decision was that criminal suspects had to be informed of their rights before questioning. Warren and his court also ruled decisions dealing with legislative apportionment, the basic rights of citizenship, and limitation of the use of libel laws. Warren received both criticism and praise as a result of his judicial performances.

Warren reached his last major case of the court in 1963 when he led the group responsible for the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The commission found no evidence of a conspiracy, but did find out that there was only one assassin. On July 9, 1974, Warren died in Washington, DC.