Can anyone tell me about the Rehnquist, Marshall, and Warren Courts?

Question

can anyone tell me about these courts, and the reflection of political ideology? and also give me examples of court cases

Answer 1

David B's answer was excellent. I agree with his analysis. However, the Marshall Court is probably the most important. John Marshall was Chief Justice from 1801 through 1835. Of all the Chief Justices in our history, he was the most influential and the most important. He revolutionized the way the Court issued opinions. Before Marshall, each Justice issued separate oipinions. He created the Majority Opinion concept used today with Dissents following in the same document. He almost always wrote the majority opinion and only found himself in the minority once in 34 years. He wrote what is arguable the most important decision of the Court's history, Marbury v. Madison, which established the power of the Court to declare acts of Congress unConstitutional (Judicial Review) . Between 1810 and 1820, he expanded the power of the Court over other areas of governement and was a strong Federalist.
For me, this area was a required 1 year course in law school. I would characterize the Warren Court as much more liberal and I would characterize Justice Rehnquist as writing conservative opinions himself, but presiding over a Court that often split 5-4 in its later years. The Rehnquist Court, in my opinion, had the greatest diversity of political ideologies among the Justices. I'd have to analyze the Court under Rehnquist as a compromise court between the liberals and conservatives. The oddest thing about the Rehnquist Court is that many of the Republican Presidential appointees changed after they served on the Court from conservative to moderate or liberal. Justice Souter, for example, is a Republican appointee and he wrote the opinion in Kelo v. New London, a fairly radical expansion of the power of eminent domain in Conn. Excellent question, but tough to answer here.

Answer 2

Yes, but to do so would take a semester of Constitutional Law or Supreme Court Jurisprudence.

Generally, the Warren Court was viewed (particularly by its critics) as being liberal, and the Rehnquist Court more conservative, although some analysis suggests that despite the fact that the majority of the Rehnquist Court was appointed by Republican presidents, the decisions of the Court were relatively moderate.

One problem in analyzing the Court in political ideology terms is that, despite often loud political debate, there isn't general agreement - at least among lawyers - as to what constitutes a conservative or liberal decision.