Word: opinion
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Most public opinion analysts suspect that Kennedy's popularity may already have peaked, that it is the mythic Ted Kennedy who leads Carter 2 to 1. Says Pollster Field: "His popularity is like a great reservoir that is filled to the brim...
...sharp intelligence nor Robert Kennedy's passionate convictions. He carries with him the burden of Chappaquiddick, a reputation for womanizing and the problems of separation from his troubled wife. But his biggest liability may be his image of being a big-spending liberal at a time when many public opinion analysts believe Americans have become more conservative. Opponents attach considerable significance to a Boston...
Over the years, Burger's tendency to flip-flop has given rise to conspiracy theories about his motives, notes TIME Correspondent Douglas Brew. When 'the Chief votes with the majority, he has the right to decide who should write the opinion of the court and provide the reasoning behind the decision. If he is in the minority, the most senior member of the majority assigns the task. According to former Supreme Court law clerks, Burger has, at times, held back or switched his vote to keep control of the opinion assignment, a practice the clerks call "phony voting...
...case in point is Roe vs. Wade, the controversial 1973 decision striking down state laws that prohibited abortion. According to clerks on the court at the time, Burger joined the majority to keep the opinion away from the then senior Justice, William O. Douglas. The most liberal member of the court, Douglas wanted to base the decision on a broad constitutional right to privacy. Burger preferred a more narrowly drawn opinion, one that would invite the states to replace rigid with less restrictive abortion laws. As a furious Douglas accused Burger of abusing the assigning power, the Chief gave...
...Pocket Harry, however, turned out to be anything but. During the summer, he disappeared into the library of the Mayo Clinic, where he had once been general counsel, to research the medical aspects of abortion. After he emerged, he wrote a broad opinion declaring that abortion, at least in the first trimester, was a matter for a woman and her doctor, not the state, to decide. That was hardly the reasoning Burger had hoped for. The Chief eventually added a cryptic concurring opinion arguing that the court's decision did not sanction ''abortion on demand...