Summary Of Chief Justice By Ed Cray

Freelance writer and professor Ed Cray presents a thorough recount of Chief Justice Earl Warren’s political and personal life in Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren. Warren first enters the scene as a district attorney and later, the attorney general of California. The second chapter, then, focuses on Warren’s role as the 30th governor of California and the 1948 Republican vice presidential nominee. Finally, the final chapters emphasize his role as a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and chair of the Warren Commission. Warren’s involvement in the political scene warrants this comprehensive 700-page biography.

Cray is an author, a longtime freelance writer, and a professor. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cray earned

He “interviewed nearly all of the Chief’s law clerks, four of his children, and more than one hundred others, many of whom recall for the first time their years with Warren” (Cray). Cray further informs the reader that he read thousands personal and official letters. These primary sources reveal the Chief Justice’s rivalry with other California conservatives, how some of his decisions were shaped by political happenings, and the workings of the Warren court. With such a thorough influx of sources, Cray portrays not only the regular occurrences in Warren’s life, but also his personal thoughts and

One of these weaknesses was most notably his support for Japanese internment. As the Attorney General during World War II, Warren was remembered as a strong proponent for Japanese internment: the confinement of 120,000 Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, and depriving them of due process. Furthermore, Warren organized California’s civilian defense program. This advocacy contradicted his views as Chief Justice, who later became an avid supporter of civil liberties, shown by cases such as Mapp v. Ohio (1961) or Miranda v. Arizona (1966). Cray, in fact, makes this same analysis and expounds on the injustice of this evacuation. On a lesser note, Cray also examines the dichotomy between Warren’s republican background and his role in the development of progressive legislation as Chief Justice. In these controversial cases, Warren asked himself ‘what is right’ before he asked ‘what is the legal precedent.’ Cray craftily points out Warren’s seemingly paradoxical characteristics and views and explains them with great