Warren Burger
Warren Earl Burger was born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 17, 1907. In a family of seven children, Burger earned his way through college and law school. He practiced law for more than twenty years, but during this period he was active in the Minnesota state Republican Party. Burger worked for the Justice Department under President Eisenhower, who nominated Burger in 1956 to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Burger was appointed by President Richard Nixon in 1969 to replace Earl Warren as Chief Justice to the United States Supreme Court. He was a strong advocate of "strict constructionism", a philosophy whereby one attempts to base one's decisions upon the literal text of the Constitution. Burger identified with the Court's conservative wing and frequently voted to limit the liberal decisions of the Warren period. Burger was not one-dimensional, however. He authored the Court's opinion upholding the right of trial judges to order busing as a remedy for school segregation and he spoke for a unanimous Court upholding a subpeona for the Watergate tapes which resulted in President Nixon's resignation.