Chief Justice William Rehnquist was a good man and a good jurist. The “Justice” before his name was not a misnomer. It was true, insofar as anyone can be just in this world. When the Court entered the sanatorium of moral relativism in Roe, he stayed outside with God and the Constitution.

“I have difficulty in concluding, as the Court does, that the right of "privacy" is involved in this case. Texas, by the statute here challenged, bars the performance of a medical abortion by a licensed physician on a plaintiff such as Roe. A transaction resulting in an operation such as this is not "private" in the ordinary usage of that word.” Roe v. Wade (Justice Rehnquist dissenting).

His act of dissenting from the Court’s most murderous decision dramatizes the greatness of his contribution to our Constitutional law. No more praise need be said but there is more to praise.

He was a consistent pro-life vote from Danforth, to Rust, to Casey, to Carhart. He decided abortion cases on the basis of what the Constitution said —which is to say that he decided for us. He judged pro-life speech on the basis of First Amendment law. No abortion distortion and no double standards for pro-life speech were for him.

Chief Justice Rehnquist was not always a lone voice in the wilderness defending the moral foundations of the law. In Glucksberg and Quill, the Rehnquist Court dashed the euthanasia movement’s hopes for another Roe and found anti-physician assisted suicide laws Constitutional. In short, in these cases, Chief Justice Rehnquist applied the Constitution.

Judge Roberts flew into town to fill a dwarf’s shoes. Now he is replacing a giant and we can only hope and pray he is worthy.

Chief Justice Rehnquist is sorely missed by us and the Constitution. We will miss him more in the days ahead. Let us pause and say an Our Father for him. May He rest in peace.