Legal Journal Does Honors; Rehnquist, 78, May Be In Last Year On Bench

POSTED: 1:00 p.m. EDT May 19, 2003
UPDATED: 1:07 p.m. EDT May 19, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Editors at a legal journal think they're doing Supreme Court jurist William Rehnquist justice by depicting him on a bobblehead figurine.

A spokesman for the journal Green Bag said the bobblehead doll is a tribute to the 78-year-old chief justice in what may be his last year on the bench.

The ceramic figurine really looks like Rehnquist (pictured, left) and features inside details about his work on the bench. He is depicted standing atop a color map that was a central feature of a 1979 case he wrote involving 19th-century railroad easements.


Rehnquist discovered the doll when one appeared in his chambers this month. He got a good laugh out of it and even sent the journal's editor-in-chief a thank-you letter.

Rehnquist, the chief justice since 1986, was appointed by President Richard Nixon in 1972.