Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made

Since there is so much I want to read I usually don't read more than one biography of anybody and I had already read two of Earl Warren: 1827 Super Chief: Earl Warren and his Supreme Court A Judicial Biography, by Bernard Schwartz (read 19 Feb 1984) 3114 Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren, by Ed Cray (read 26 Sep 1998) So I was surprised that I decided to read this book. But not reading it would have been a big mistake This is an extraordinarily well-done work, telling the story of a man whose contributions to our country as we now know it are huge. The author has a sure grasp for the momentous events in which Warren was involved, and I have not read a more interest-holding biography in years. So even if you think you know all there is to know about the man who turned out to be the greatest Chief Justice in our nation's history, you should read this excellent account of a vitally important man.

Earl Warren's is a biography that pays revisiting, especially now that the political center he represented is so thin and the political virtues he practiced so derided. He was an uncomplicated, direct, and plain-spoken man who nevertheless, as Chief Justice, produced astonishing results. Brown vs. the Board of Education provided the essential legal fulcrum of the Civil Rights movement that transformed America in the last half of the 20th century. Perhaps this simplicity and clear vision was the key to his effectiveness. How to explain the contradictions in Warren's life? Eisenhower was famously unhappy with his appointee. Warren, as Chief Justice, took positions that contradicted what Warren himself, as a District Attorney and Governor, had in fact practiced. No wonder Ike was pole-axed by the Chief Justice he got. The answer seems to be that Warren focused on using the tools each office provided to advance a consistent philosophy, equal justice for all. Also interesting is the counterpoint and interplay of the careers of Warren and Richard Nixon. Nixon plainly drafted in Warren's wake and converted to the uses of his ambition political capital Warren had accumulated, especially when he crawled over Warren's presidential ambitions to secure the nomination as Vice-President. Yet two politicians were never more dissimilar than Warren and Nixon, the one open, natural, sociable, and comfortable in his skin, the other so contrived and fabricated as to stand for the least likely politician in recent history. But Nixon feigned the virtues Warren possessed in abundance: another way he drafted in Warren's wake. When Nixon hid lies and inconsistencies behind prefaces that he was about to make things "perfectly clear," he aped only Warren's political prose, not Warren's philosophy. Jim Newton is a writer Warren would have enjoyed talking to and might have hired as a speechwriter. His prose is direct and his explanations of otherwise thorny and obscure legal issues easily penetrable. Warren deserves a better and grander reputation than he has merited at the hands of the neo-conservatives who have taken over the Court and Court punditry. Newton is an able advocate for a reappraisal. Warren did much more good for the county than serve as the exemplar of evil judicial activism. Absent Warren would Clarence Thomas today be on the Supreme Court? Perhaps the only irony of Warren's career is that so few followed in his footsteps, but so many neo-Nixons are still drafting in his wake.

Unfortunately many contemporary talented historian write social policy and other sociological aspects of our society causing them to avoid old fashioned political history and biographies. Fortunately there are journalist like Jim Newton who have stepped in to fill the void. Earl Warren and the Nation He Made is the story of a man that changed much of American life. It tells his personal story, the story of California for most of the 1st half of the 20th century and the story of the Supreme Court. This book is well written and extremely readable. The first chapter is a sort of a "teaser", starting with the story of Warren's appointment to the court. While it really got me interested in the book, I found my self returning to the first chapter when the time came in the story to relate the events surrounding the appointment. Since the author did not repeat the political manuvering surround the appointment I felt there was a void at that point in the story. Richard Nixon clearly does not fair well in the story. One minor point, in discussing Brown v. Board of Education, the author refers to the plaintiff Oliver Brown and his daughter Cheryl Brown who was denied admission to a white school. The minor child of Oliver Brown, was Linda Brown. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, the history of the Supreme Court of the history of a great American.

An excellent, readable reminder of the man who put conservative values to the service of all people without regard to their economic, social or ethnic standing. An outstanding tribute to the greatness of America. My wife says that despite having grown up in the Warren years she had not realized the impact Justice Warren had on all our lives. Jim Newton is telling a story that is so important in today's world.

An interesting and compelling read, providing great insight to the complications of Earl Warren. A must for anyone who enjoys American or California history, or the Law.