Court judges are ideally supposed to set politics aside in interpreting law and rendering their decisions. In practice, even interpretations are subject to ideology. Controversial decisions frequently end up splitting along party lines, and judges are selected in hopes their suspected (but never outright stated) political leanings would provide swing votes on key divisive issues. So was the case with William Rehnquist, a darling of conservatives, who consistently in his pre-Supreme court career voted in favor of strong criminal investigation methods, school prayer and states’ rights and against desegregation and legalized abortions.

On this day, December 10, in 1971, despite his conservative record, a Democrat-controlled Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve William Rehnquist’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

Whatever his political views, Rehnquist clearly had a brilliant mind. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of a paper salesman, he served in North Africa in WW II and went to Stanford on the GI bill to earn his bachelor’s and master’s in political science. Another master’s in government came from Harvard, and then Rehnquist came back to Sanford for his law degree, graduating top of his class. In the same class he met – and briefly dated – another brilliant law school student, Sandra Day O’Connor, whom he would see again years later on the same bench.