Chief Justice Rehnquist dies

WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who turned the nation's highest court in a conservative direction, curbing what he considered excessive judicial activism under his two predecessors, died yesterday at his home in Arlington, Va., after a nearly yearlong battle with cancer.

The death of Rehnquist, 80, creates a second vacancy on the Supreme Court just two days before the scheduled start of hearings into President Bush's nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

The new opening raises the stakes in the Roberts nomination by giving Bush an additional opportunity to leave his own conservative stamp on the court, according to activists preparing for next week's hearings.

Rehnquist's weakening condition had been visible to court watchers for months, but his death came as a surprise to much of official Washington, since he had defied suggestions that he resign as recently as July.

''The chief justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his duties on the court until a precipitous decline in his health in the last couple of days," said court spokesman Kathy Arberg.

Rehnquist was a little-known Justice Department official when he was nominated to be an associate justice on the court by President Nixon in 1971. But over 33 years he played a leading role in transforming the court, making himself one of the most influential justices of the last century.

He was a sole dissenting conservative on many cases early in his judicial career, but as the nation turned rightward politically, he was surrounded by increasingly conservative colleagues.

After President Reagan elevated him to chief justice in 1986, Rehnquist strove to streamline the court's operations and reduce its case load. He also coaxed his colleagues toward a more conservative direction.

The Rehnquist Court was rarely as conservative as its chief, however, and legal scholars said it would be remembered mostly as a period of transition for the court -- neither strictly liberal nor conservative. A vehement dissenter on the 1973 abortion case of Roe v. Wade, Rehnquist was never able to build a majority to overrule abortion rights, though they were trimmed back in certain ways during his later years on the bench.

In recent years, the court also reaffirmed -- but limited -- the use of affirmative action programs, cut back on some rights of criminal defendants, and loosened regulations on business.

''Over three decades, he moved, and improved, the Court's doctrines having to do with criminal justice, federal power, and the role of religion in the public square of our society," said Richard Garnett, a former Rehnquist clerk and currently a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. ''More generally, he fundamentally transformed our debates and conversations about constitutional interpretation, the job of judges, and the rule of law."

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said last night, ''President Bush and Mrs. Bush are deeply saddened by the news. It's a tremendous loss for our nation."

Leading Senate Democrats, who had been preparing for the Roberts hearings, generally declined to comment on the implications of Rehnquist's death on the nomination process, preferring to pay homage to the chief justice.

''Few justices in the history of the Court have served longer than William Rehnquist," said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. ''One of the hallmarks of his tenure has been his tenacious fight to preserve the integrity and independence of the federal courts. His commitment to the Court and his passion for the law and public service was extraordinary."

Activists on both sides of the increasingly contentious fights over judicial nominations were quick to mark the significance of a second court opening on the verge of the Roberts hearings.

"So much more now is at stake," Nan Aron, director of the leading liberal group Alliance for Justice, told the Globe last night. ''I mean, clearly, at this point, it is Roe v. Wade. Because, with two justices, two justices could certainly tilt the court in a direction that might place in jeopardy so many of our rights and protections."

Sean Rushton, director of the conservative Committee for Justice, predicted Rehnquist's passing will place a greater spotlight on the Roberts hearings. And he said that Bush should pay tribute to Rehnquist by continuing to build the court in his image.

''We hope and expect the president will stick to his guns by nominating another principled constitutionalist to replace the godfather of constitutionalism on the court, William Rehnquist," Rushton said.

Bush could choose to nominate any of the sitting justices to the post of chief justice. Among the names cited as possible chief justices are Bush's friend, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The president, after attending church services today, will make a statement, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said.

In Massachusetts, where Rehnquist had obtained a master's degree from Harvard University, judges and legal scholars praised the chief justice as a principled conservative.

State Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert Cordy called Rehnquist a "remarkable" jurist. "He had an extraordinary tenure as a justice on the court and as chief justice and he truly made his mark in a number of areas," said Cordy.

"He was successful in bringing the court back to the center and shifting jurisprudence back to the states and, in that respect, he accomplished what he had hoped to accomplish," Cordy said.

Yet Cordy also said that it was sometimes "painful" to see how sharply divided the court was during much of Rehnquist's tenure and said that the next two appointees would be crucial to the court's future direction.

Outgoing Boston Bar Association President M. Ellen Carpenter said she was caught off guard by the news of Rehnquist's death.

''Whether you agree or disagree with his decisions, he certainly was a person to be respected," she said. ''He had a deep and true love of the law."

Rehnquist had several ties to Massachusetts. His son, James C., a former federal prosecutor, lives in the Boston area and is a partner in the litigation department at the Boston law firm Goodwin Procter.

Ralph Ranalli of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Chase Davis contributed to this report.