专八人文知识需知的美国名人--厄尔.沃伦

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--厄尔.沃伦

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　厄尔·沃伦(Earl Warren，1891年3月19日-1974年7月9日)是美国著名政治家、法学家，担任过美国加利福尼亚州州长，1953年至1969年期间担任美国首席大法官。在担任首席大法官期间，美国最高法院做出了很多涉及种族隔离、民权、政教分离、逮捕程序等著名判例。2006年，沃伦被美国的权威期刊《大西洋月刊》评为影响美国的100位人物之一(名列第29位)。

　　Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was the 14th ChiefJustice of the United States and the only person elected Governor of California three times. Beforeholding these positions, Warren served as a district attorney for Alameda County, California andAttorney General of California. He is best known for the sweeping liberal decisions of the WarrenCourt, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especiallyregarding the rights of the accused, ending school prayer, and requiring “one-man-one vote” rulesof apportionment. He made the Court a power center on a more even base with Congress and thepresidency especially through four landmark decisions: "Brown v. Board of Education" (1954), "Gideon v. Wainwright" (1963), "Reynolds v. Sims" (1964), and "Miranda v. Arizona" (1966).

　　As governor of California, Warren was very popular across party lines, so much so that in the 1946gubernatorial election he won the nominations of the Democratic, Progressive, and Republicanparties and was reelected virtually without opposition. His tenure as Chief Justice was as divisive ashis governorship was unifying. Liberals generally hailed the landmark rulings issued by the WarrenCourt which affected, among other things, the legal status of racial segregation, civil rights,separation of church and state, and police arrest procedure in the United States. But conservativesdecried the Court's rulings, particularly in areas affecting criminal proceedings. In the years thatfollowed, the Warren Court became recognized as a high point in the use of judicial power in theeffort to effect social progress in the United States. Warren himself became widely regarded as oneof the most influential Supreme Court justices in the history of the United States and perhaps thesingle most important jurist of the 20th century.

　　In addition to the constitutional offices he held, Warren was also the vice-presidential nominee ofthe Republican Party in 1948, and chaired the Warren Commission, which was formed toinvestigate the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

　　Scholars agree that as a judge, Warren does not rank with intellectual giants such as LouisBrandeis, Hugo Black, William Brennan or William Rehnquist in terms of jurisprudence. His opinionswere not always clearly written, and his legal logic was often muddled. His strength lay in his clearvision that the Constitution embodied natural rights that could not be denied to the citizenry andthat the Supreme Court had a special role in protecting those rights.

　　Political conservatives attacked his judicial activism as inappropriate and have called for courts tobe deferential to the elected political branches. Political liberals sometimes admit that the WarrenCourt went too far in some areas, but insist that most of its controversial decisions struck aresponsive chord in the nation and have become embedded in the law.

　　Attorney General of California

　　In 1938 he won the primaries in all major parties, thanks to a system called "cross filing." and waselected without serious opposition. Once elected he organized statelaw enforcement officials intoregions and led a statewide anti-crime effort. One of his major initiatives was to crack down ongambling ships operating off the coast of Southern California.

　　As Attorney General, Warren is most remembered for being the moving force behind Japaneseinternment during the war—the compulsory removal of people of Japanese descent to inlandinternment camps away from the war zone along the coast. Following the Japanese Attack onPearl Harbor in December 1941, Warren organized the state's civilian defense program, warning inJanuary, 1942, that, "The Japanese situation as it exists in this state today may well be the Achillesheel of the entire civilian defense effort." Throughout his lifetime, Warren maintained that thisseemed to be the right decision at the time.

　　U.S. Supreme Court

　　Appointed to Supreme Court

　　In 1952, Warren stood as a "favorite son" candidate of California for the Republican nomination forPresident, hoping to be a power broker in a convention that might be deadlocked. But Warren hadto head off a revolt by Senator Richard M. Nixon who supported General Dwight D. Eisenhower.Eisenhower and Nixon were elected, and the bad blood between Warren and Nixon was apparent.Eisenhower offered, and Warren accepted, the post of solicitor general, with the promise of a seaton the Supreme Court. But before it was announced Chief Justice Fred Vinson unexpectedly diedin September 1953 and Eisenhower picked Warren to replace him as Chief Justice of the UnitedStates. The president wanted an experienced jurist who could appeal to liberals in the party as wellas law-and-order conservatives, noting privately that Warren "represents the kind of political,economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court.... He has a nationalname for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court".

　　The Warren Court

　　Main article: Warren Court

　　Warren took his seat January 11, 1954 on a recess appointment; the Senate confirmed him sixweeks later. Despite his lack of judicial experience, his years in the Alameda County districtattorney's office and as state attorney general gave him far more knowledge of the law in practicethan most other members of the Court had. Warren's greatest asset, what made him in the eyesof many of his admirers "Super Chief," was his political skill in manipulating the other justices. Overthe years his ability to lead the Court, to forge majorities in support of major decisions, and toinspire liberal forces around the nation, outweighed his intellectual weaknesses. Warren realized hisweakness and asked the senior associate justice, Hugo L. Black, to preside over conferences untilhe became accustomed to the drill. A quick study, Warren soon was in fact as well as in name theCourt's chief justice.

　　All the justices had been appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt or Truman, and all were committedNew Deal liberals. They disagreed about the role that the courts should play in achieving liberalgoals. The Court was split between two warring factions. Felix Frankfurter and Robert H. Jacksonled one faction, which insisted upon judicial self-restraint and insisted courts should defer to thepolicymaking prerogatives of the White House and Congress. Hugo Black and William O. Douglasled the opposing activist faction; they agreed the court should defer to Congress in matters ofeconomic policy, but felt the judicial agenda had been transformed from questions of propertyrights to those of individual liberties, and in this area courts should play a more activist role.Warren's belief that the judiciary must seek to do justice, placed him with the activists. although hedid not have a solid majority until after Frankfurter's retirement in 1962.

　　Warren Commission

　　Main article: Warren Commission

　　President Johnson demanded in the name of patriotic duty that Warren head the governmentalcommission that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was an unhappy experiencefor Warren, who did not want the assignment. As a judge, he valued candor and justice, but as apolitician he recognized the need for secrecy in some matters. He insisted that the commissionreport should be unanimous, and so he compromised on a number of issues in order to get all themembers to sign the final version. But many conspiracy theorists have attacked the commission'sfindings ever since, claiming that key evidence is missing or distorted and that there are manyinconsistencies in the report. The Commission concluded that the assassination was the result of asingle individual, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone. Fears of possible Soviet or Cuban foreigninvolvement in the assassination necessitated the establishment of a bipartisan commission that, inturn, sought to depoliticize Oswald's role by downplaying his Communist affiliations. Thecommission weakened its findings by not sharing the government's deepest secrets. The report'slack of candor furthered antigovernment cynicism, which in turn stimulated conspiracy theoristswho propounded any number of alternative scenarios, all mutually contradictory.

　　Death

　　Five and a half years after his retirement, Warren died in Washington, D.C., on July 9, 1974.Hisfuneral was held at Washington National Cathedral and his body was buried at Arlington NationalCemetery.

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