QUESTIONS:
1. With the growing likelihood that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist will be unable to swear in President Bush January 20, speculation is now that former President George H.W. Bush will do the honors for his son. When was the last time a President was sworn into office by his father?
2. When was the last time a President was sworn in by someone other than the chief justice?
3. Although there has been some discussion of Justice Clarence Thomas's being moved up to be chief justice if there is a vacancy, only three of the 16 chief justices came directly from the ranks of associate justices, two of them since 1940. Can you name the two?
4. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is widely considered a steppingstone to the Supreme Court. Who was the last judge of the D.C. court to be chief justice?
5. Who is currently the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals?
ANSWERS:
1. Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn into the presidency by his father, Vermont justice of the peace John Coolidge, following the death of President Warren Harding in 1923.
2. In 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the presidency by U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
3. Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, who became chief justice in 1941; and Rehnquist, who was named chief justice in 1986. (Justice Edward White was moved up to chief justice in 1910. Charles Evan Hughes, who was chief justice from 1930-41, had been an associate justice of the court but resigned the office in 1916 and was not on the bench when named chief justice.)
4. Warren E. Burger, chief justice from 1969-86, who had been chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
5. Douglas H. Ginsburg, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1987 but withdrew his name following reports of his having used marijuana.
