On Earl Warren’s Retirement: A Reply to Professor Kurland

On that Monday in June of this year when Earl Warren removed his robe for the last time, a significant era in the history of the country, not just that of the Supreme Court, came to an end. It was in recognition of this (and somewhat in anticipation, as events turned out) that the Michigan Law Review published a symposium on the so-called “Warren Court” in its December 1968 issue. Those articles were ·written by distinguished scholars and practitioners and are of consistently high quality. All but one of them dealt with important substantive matters considered and decided by the Court during ·warren’s tenure as Chief Justice. The remaining article, by Professor Philip B. Kurland, was more distinctly personal-and less than wholly laudatory-in its thrust. It is partly in response to that piece, and partly in simple tribute to a great public servant, that this Article is written.