This term may be the end of the Rehnquist Court era.

Rehnquist thought [the court] had gone way too far, and in many dissents was working to cut it back. He succeeded, and he began to succeed even before he became chief justice. He gradually cut back federal-court supervision of state prosecutions. [The death penalty ban] was reversed. And the limits upon prosecutors and police were rationalized and relaxed.

Justice Rehnquist went to the Supreme Court in 1972, at a time of ascendant judicial activism.

Politically or ideologically oriented evaluations of Chief Justice Rehnquist should not overlook what a successful and popular chief justice he was within the Court as the justices' presiding officer, ... The contrast between Rehnquist's undeniably happy Court and that of his predecessor, Warren E. Burger, could not have been greater.

Politically or ideologically oriented evaluations of Chief Justice Rehnquist should not overlook what a successful and popular chief justice he was within the Court as the justices' presiding officer. The contrast between Rehnquist's undeniably happy Court and that of his predecessor, Warren E. Burger, could not have been greater.

Even if he is more likely to be a Rehnquist than a Thomas, the downside of him being a Thomas outweighed the upside of him being a Rehnquist,