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43 Sua Sponte 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/suapont43 and id is 1 raw text is: FROM WARREN TO BURGER: RACE RELATIONS INSIDE THE COURT Robert Fabrikantt Chief Justice Warren E. Burger is an unsung hero in our nation's struggle to remove vestiges of racial segregation and race- based slavery and to create an environment of racial equality and equal treatment. What is noteworthy about Burger's contribution to racial justice is that he accomplished as much, if not more, in his off-the-bench activities as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court than in his very respectable jurisprudence on racial issues.' Burger did not simply talk the talk of racial equality. He practiced it, effortlessly and without fanfare, in his daily life and in discharging his administrative duties as Chief Justice. In order to fully appreciate Burger's transformative impact on racial equality, it is necessary to revisit the interior life of the Court as it existed when Burger took the helm inJune 1969. In 1974, five years after Burger became Chief Justice, and more than forty years ago, an article was published which rocked Washington, D.C. A cub columnist, Nina Totenberg, accused the Court of being the Last Plantation, because it was thoroughly T Mr. Fabrikant is a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, in Washington, D.C. and a Professor in the Practice at Howard University School of Law. He clerked for Warren E. Burger on the D.C. Circuit Court, and then at the Supreme Court, when, from 1969 to 1970, he served as the Senior Law Clerk to the Chief Justice. I wish to express my deepest appreciation to Jan Horbaly for his characteristically sage reviews of this article. I would also like to thank Hernse Eugene, the extraordinary librarian at Manatt's Washington, D.C. office, for his superb librarian skills, which helped unearth hard-to-find sources. 1. See Robert Fabrikant, Remembering Warren E. Burger, 40 J. SUP. CT. HIST. 203 (2015); see also Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971) (holding that literacy and aptitude tests used by employer as prerequisites forjobs to which tests bore no direct application, and which had a disproportionately negative effect on African Americans, were impermissible violations of Title VII). 2. See Nina Totenberg, The Supreme Court: The Last Plantation, NEW TIMES, July 26, 1974, at 26-31. Ms. Totenberg was kind enough to send me a copy of the article, as I was not otherwise able to locate it. 1

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