Warren

Born: March 19, 1891 in Los Angeles, California
Died: July 9, 1974 in Washington D.C.
Education: 1912 University of California Berkeley B.A.
                   1914 University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law
Employment: 1914-1917 private practice in San Francisco and Oakland, California
                       1917-1918 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army
                       1919 clerk for the Assembly Judiciary Committee in the California Legislature
                       1919-1920 Deputy City Attorney for the City of Oakland
                       1920-1923 Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, California
                       1923-1925 Chief Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, California
                       1925-1938 District Attorny for Alameda County California
                       1938-1942 State Attorny General for California
                       1942-1953 elected Governor of California
                       1954-1974 appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President                                                 Eisenhower
                       1974 died in office
(Virtualology, 2002)

     Chief Justice Warren created the Warren Era and Court. His main focus for the Supreme Court during his rule was to expand rights, liberties, and criminal justice, also he wanted to establish the right to privacy, and show that the Court was a national policy maker.(Epstein, 2001) This was also the first court to have a black appointed to the bench, Thurgood Marshall. Many of the major landmark cases were done in the Warren Era.
      One of his very first court cases was Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas. In this case Brown was suing Topeka because they were making is daughter go to a black school that was three miles away and would not allow her to go to a white school that was blocks away from her house.(Epstein, 2001) The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson say that �separate but equal� was not equal. This court case allowed nine black high school students to attend what use to be an all white school in Little Rock, Arkansas.
      Another very famous case was Mapp v. Ohio, this case was focused around 4th amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The police in Ohio had busted in to Mapp�s house and without a search warrant because they believed that she was harboring a fugitive. When her lawyer came they would not let him see her. They didn�t find the fugitive but they did find obscene materials that she wasn�t allowed to have under Ohio law. They arrested her and the court in Ohio founder guilty but Warren reversed the decision of the lower court saying that the officers should have gotten a warrant, let her lawyer and they shouldn�t have proceeded the way that they did.(Epstein, 2001) Mapp helped establish our rights against unreasonable searches and seizures even though it was written in the Constitution it is something that need to be refocused on.
      His last case that he worked on was Miranda v. Arizona. Miranda helped establish your rights when you get arrested. I�m sure you have seen cop shows where they say �You have the right to remain silent, any thing you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have a right to an attorney, if you can not afford on then one will be appointed to you.� In 1966 this case established your rights and it helped cops too because now the blame could be shifted away from them. (Epstein, 2001)
       Even though Eisenhower regretted his decision of appointing Warren to the bench because Warren was suppose to be a conservative but his decisions were liberal. His court cases helped establish our rights that we already had but we just didn�t know it. The Constitution was applied to the individuals and not just to the federal government and the state.