Portal:Wisconsin/Selected biography/6

William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States.

Rehnquist was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as William Donald Rehnquist and grew up in the suburb of Shorewood. His father, William Benjamin Rehnquist, was a paper salesman; his mother, Margery Peck Rehnquist, was a translator and homemaker. He graduated from Shorewood High School in 1942.

When Chief Justice Warren Burger retired in 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to fill the position. The Senate confirmed his appointment by a 65-33 vote, and he assumed the office on September 26. The two most visible aspects of Rehnquist's tenure as Chief were his presiding over the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton and the Bush v. Gore decision. In 1999, Rehnquist became the second Chief Justice (after Salmon P. Chase) to preside over a presidential impeachment trial, during the proceedings against President Bill Clinton.

On October 26, 2004, the Supreme Court press office announced that Rehnquist had recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. After several months out of the public eye, Rehnquist administered the oath of office to President George W. Bush at his second inauguration on January 20, 2005.

Rehnquist died at his Arlington, Virginia, home on September 3, 2005. Rehnquist was the first member of the Supreme Court to die in office since Justice Robert H. Jackson in 1954, and the first Chief Justice to die in office since Fred M. Vinson, in 1953.