This was the man who served as an ideological light for John Roberts. “Rehnquist reinforced John’s preexisting philosophies,” observed a colleague clerking for another justice. “John was not a believer in the courts giving rights to minorities and the downtrodden. That was the basic Rehnquist philosophy.” The framing of the Rehnquist-Roberts philosophy is key. Note that the word used is “giving” instead of simply recognizing that minorities have rights.
