Comments on: Kennedy & O’Connor at Stanford Law School http://www.scotusblog.com/2006/03/kennedy-oconnor-at-stanford-law-school/ The Supreme Court of the United States blog Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:38:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Marc Shepherd http://www.scotusblog.com/2006/03/kennedy-oconnor-at-stanford-law-school/#comment-9195 Marc Shepherd Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:48:17 +0000 http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/uncategorized/kennedy-oconnor-at-stanford-law-school/#comment-9195 Great report. I think it's somewhat of a misnomer to describe Rehnquist as Justice Kennedy's "late boss." A Chief Justice has usually been described as "first among equals." He has practically none of the authority that is normally ascribed to being "a boss." Arguably, he has even less individual authority than a committee chairman in Congress (though he has many things they don't have, including life tenure). The Chief's only concrete authority is the power to assign the opinion when he is in the majority. And even that privilege comes to very little unless the resultant opinion manages to attract five votes, which there is no assurance it will. Justice O'Connor has even told the story that, on at least one occasion when the Chief assigned her the majority opinion, she switched sides midway through writing it, leaving Rehnquist in the minority. Great report. I think it’s somewhat of a misnomer to describe Rehnquist as Justice Kennedy’s “late boss.” A Chief Justice has usually been described as “first among equals.” He has practically none of the authority that is normally ascribed to being “a boss.” Arguably, he has even less individual authority than a committee chairman in Congress (though he has many things they don’t have, including life tenure).

The Chief’s only concrete authority is the power to assign the opinion when he is in the majority. And even that privilege comes to very little unless the resultant opinion manages to attract five votes, which there is no assurance it will.

Justice O’Connor has even told the story that, on at least one occasion when the Chief assigned her the majority opinion, she switched sides midway through writing it, leaving Rehnquist in the minority.

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