More to Rehnquist than met the eye

Posted by Philip Barron at 12:57 PM on January 4, 2007.

Regarding the recently released FBI file on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist: We should be gravely concerned about the possibility that a federal law enforcement entity was used for such blatantly political ends as the investigation and possible intimidation of witness opposed to the nomination of a Supreme Court justice...just as we hardly surprised that once-UN ambassador and political hatchet man John Bolton may have played a willing role.

As if that wasn't enough, the file also conjures the startling image of a thoroughly unbalanced Rehnquist withdrawing from painkillers, trying to escape a hospital, running around in pajamas and ranting wildly of being a target of the CIA. It sounds like an excerpt from the work of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (whom Rehnquist somewhat resembled, come to think of it).

With material like that having been released, it makes you wonder at what hasn't been cleared to public viewing:

In one previously secret memo from 1971, an FBI official wrote, "No persons interviewed during our current or 1969 investigation furnished information bearing adversely on Rehnquist's morals or professional integrity; however ..." The next third of the page is blacked out, under the disclosure law's exception for matters of national security.

National security? This file is over thirty years old. There can be no rationale for the redaction of any of this information. In the light of possible strong-arm tactics intended to protect the Rehnquist nomination, the entirety of the file must be disclosed.

Tagged as: william rehnquist, supreme court, fbi

Philip Barron is a St. Louis writer and author of the blog Waveflux.