Earl Warren

Who was Earl Warren?

Earl Warren was an American jurist and politician who served as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States and the 30th Governor of California.

He is best known for the decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring "one-man-one vote" rules of apportionment. He made the Court a power center on a more even base with Congress and the presidency especially through four landmark decisions: Brown v. Board of Education, Gideon v. Wainwright, Reynolds v. Sims, and Miranda v. Arizona.

Warren is one of only two people to be elected Governor of California three times, the other being Jerry Brown. Before holding these positions, he was a district attorney for Alameda County, California, and Attorney General of California.

Warren was also the vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party in 1948, and chaired the Warren Commission, which was formed to investigate the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Alongside that of John Marshall, Warren's tenure as Chief Justice is often seen as a high point of the power of the American judicial branch.