provided significant tax cuts, which, according to
the supply-side economic theories favored by the
Reagan administration, were believed to benefit the
economy by stimulating spending and investment by
businesses and wealthy individuals. Overall, Regan
generally pursued policies of business deregulation
and the promotion of competition that exhibited his
deep faith in the free enterprise system.
In 1984, Regan decided to leave the Treasury De-
partment because of his concerns about leaks to the
press from within the White House and an atmo-
sphere of mistrust among the president’s major ad-
visers. The president urged him to stay on, and in an
unusual maneuver, Regan and White House chief of
staff James Baker switched jobs in early 1985—Baker
became secretary of the Treasury, and Regan be-
came the new White House chief of staff. At the
White House, personality conflicts soon emerged
between Regan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. More
serious, Regan was soon dogged by the Iran-Contra
affair. In late 1986, news reports revealed that mem-
bers of Reagan’s administration had sold arms to
Iran and funneled the proceeds to the anticommu-
nist Contras in Nicaragua. Regan was accused of try-
ing to obstruct the investigation into the Reagan ad-
ministration’s involvement in these arms sales, and
he resigned as chief of staff in February, 1987. After
leaving the White House, he published his memoirs,
For the Record. His allegations that both Ronald and
Nancy Reagan consulted a personal astrologer be-
fore making major decisions (widely denied by the
Reagan family) further estranged him from the First
Family.
Impact Although he left the chief of staff position
under a cloud, Regan had a major impact on the eco-
nomic policies of the Reagan administration be-
cause of his leadership in the Department of the
Treasury during Reagan’s first term as president.
Further Reading
Noonan, Peggy.What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political
Life in the Reagan Era. New York: Ivy Books, 1990.
Regan, Donald T.For the Record: From Wall Street to
Washington.New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
Mark S. Joy
See also Business and the economy in the United
States; Iran-Contra affair; Reagan, Nancy; Reagan,
Ronald; Reagan Revolution; Reaganomics; Tower
Commission.
Rehnquist, William H.
Identification U.S. Supreme Court justice, 1972-
1986, and chief justice of the United States,
1986-2005
Born October 1, 1924; Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died September 3, 2005; Arlington, Virginia
Rehnquist was a conservative Supreme Court justice who
favored federalism, states’ rights, business, and religion.
President Richard M. Nixon appointed William H.
Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court on December
10, 1971. As an associate justice of the United States,
Rehnquist quickly established himself as the most
conservative justice on the Warren E. Burger Court.
Unwilling to concede on many issues, he consis-
tently found himself as the lone dissenter. Rehnquist
could be counted on to vote in favor of states, busi-
ness, religious freedom, capital punishment, and
antiabortion policies, and against the expansion
of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal
protection for all citizens.
President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist
to fill the chief justice position when Burger retired
in 1986. The Senate confirmed his nomination on
September 26, 1986, by an overwhelming majority.
His successor, Antonin Scalia, has been viewed as
more conservative than Rehnquist.
With his ascension to chief justice, Rehnquist was
able to shift the ideological focus of the Court. Be-
tween 1986 and the end of the decade, Rehnquist
slowly drove a wedge between the public’s expecta-
tions that the Court would continue to deliver liberal-
minded decisions and the reality that it was becom-
ing increasingly conservative. It should be noted
that the true extent of the conservative revolution in
the Court was not fully witnessed until Clarence
Thomas was appointed in 1991.
In spite of his conservative views, Rehnquist was
not afraid of joining and occasionally writing consid-
erably liberal decisions. For instance, inMeritor Sav-
ings Bank v. Vinson(1986), Rehnquist wrote the ma-
jority opinion, which expanded the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 to cover hostile-environment sexual harass-
ment and include protections against the psycholog-
ical aspects of harassment in the workplace.
Rehnquist was also an advocate for patriotism.
He wrote the primary dissenting opinion in the
highly controversial flag burning caseTexas v. John-
son(1989), in which he argued that the flag wasThe Eighties in America Rehnquist, William H. 817