Chief Justice

Shortly before moving to the top of the highest court in the land, Associate Justice William Hobbs Rehnquist was known as "The Lone Ranger" because of his frequent solo dissents. He is a Lone Ranger no more. As the Supreme Court heads today into its 12th year under Chief Justice Rehnquist, it may justly be dubbed the Rehnquist Court. Often the conservative trio of Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have been joined by centrist Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy to generate 5-4 victories that are reshaping the law in the areas of race, religion and states' rights.

Long-simmering tension between the two Philadelphians on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille and Justice Seamus McCaffery - has flared into outright acrimony following the unauthorized disclosure of a report that details widespread ticket-fixing at the city's Traffic Court. McCaffery is enraged over the leaking of the report, which was commissioned by Castille and strongly suggests that McCaffery fixed a ticket given to his wife, numerous sources close to him and Castille say. "The blowback has been ferocious," said one person with direct knowledge of the rift prompted by disclosure of the report.

Judicial turnover could bring major change to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over several years, but Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille isn't ready to leave the bench one day sooner than he must. The former Philadelphia district attorney, elected to the court in 1993, will hit the mandatory retirement age of 70 next year. Even so, he plans to run in the fall for another 10-year term knowing he'd have to cut it short. "There's a couple of projects I think I should be here for, at least until 2014," he said.

John Modugno showed up at Philadelphia Traffic Court that hot summer day to fight his $294.50 ticket for driving the wrong way and making an illegal turn. Judge H. Warren Hogeland found him guilty. Kurt Clements made his case that day, too. Hogeland's verdict - guilty of making an improper turn, a $126.50 fine. The same day, Hogeland also convicted Orion Green of driving his truck with expired inspection and emissions stickers. Green is still paying off his hefty fine. But Lise Rapaport made out OK. On July 16, 2010, Hogeland acquitted her of driving the wrong way on Market Street in Center City.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who early in his Supreme Court tenure was kidded for being an ideological Lone Ranger, marks his 18th anniversary on the high court today - now the leader of a conservative majority. The survivor of a bruising 1986 Senate battle over his elevation to chief justice, Rehnquist has emerged as the collegial orchestrator of a major rightward shift in the court. "The Rehnquist court came of age" in 1989, said A.E. Dick Howard, a law professor at the University of Virginia.

In case you've been too busy to follow the Trial of the Century in the U.S. Senate, here's the complete official transcript so far: SERGEANT AT ARMS: Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! All persons shut up and pay attention for the trial of the impeachment of the president of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, on charges of messing around! No chewing of gum! SEN. LOTT: At this time, in accordance with the United States Senate Big Book O' Rules, Sen. Thurmond shall swear in the Chief Justice of the United States.

The U.S. Senate may be the world's most exclusive club, but it never hurts to reinforce good manners among the members, particularly when the world is getting ready to watch the nation's second presidential impeachment trial ever. So yesterday a discreet reminder was distributed by the Leadership Working Group, a sort of Miss Manners committee of senators set up by Majority Leader Trent Lott (R., Miss.). For those concerned with the niceties of impeachment decorum, here are some of the rules the group came up with: Senators should plan to be in attendance at all times during the proceedings.

What kind of attorney is William H. Rehnquist if he did not know the deeds on two pieces of real estate contained provisions forbidding the sale or lease to Jewish people or blacks? Is this the man we want to be the chief justice of the country? If a bigot is allowed to preside over our Supreme Court then our Supreme Court will no longer be supreme. Marcia Brody Cheltenham.

Funeral arrangements were announced yesterday for Richard J. Hughes, the former New Jersey governor and state Supreme Court chief justice. Calling hours will be Sunday from 3 to 9 p.m. at St. Mary's Cathedral, at North Warren and Bank Streets in Trenton. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Monday at 11 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church, Bellevue and North Hermitage Avenues, Trenton. Interment will follow at St. Mary's Cemetery on Cedar Lane in Trenton. Gov. Hughes died Monday at his Boca Raton, Fla., vacation home.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will come to town next fall as part of the We the People 200 celebration. The announcement that the chief justice would come to Philadelphia on Oct. 2 came after organizers had been turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided not to visit Philadelphia en banc, and by former President Gerald R. Ford and former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, both sought as celebration spokesmen. Meanwhile, Congress is considering whether to renege on a joint session that would bring all the representatives and senators to Independence Mall.