Get Well Soon
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

All Americans will be wishing Chief Justice Rehnquist a speedy recovery as he undergoes treatment in respect of thyroid cancer. News of his illness, coming as it does eight days before the presidential election, couldn’t arrive at a more dramatic time. A statement from the third branch said that Mr. Rehnquist, who is 80, will be back on the bench by Monday. And thyroid cancers are among those that can be, indeed usually are, cured. But that did not stop what the Washington Post called a “frenzy of speculation” about possible successors.
Many are noting that given the age of the nine – Justice Thomas is the only one younger than 65 – the chances are high that whoever is president during the next four years will get to leave his mark on the justice system for decades to come. No doubt all this will throw into sharper relief than ever the differences between President Bush and Senator Kerry over the role of judges. In respect of the substance – we are with the camp that favors, at this stage of our national development, a deference to the legislatures – there will be plenty of time to work all this out.
What we find ourselves reflecting on at the moment is just the magnificence of the office Mr. Rehnquist holds. He is often referred to as the chief justice of the Supreme Court, but his actual, constitutional title is chief justice of the United States, head of the judicial branch. There have been only 16 chiefs since the founding of the republic. Mr. Rehnquist himself mounted the high bench when Mr. Kerry was still an anti-war agitator and Mr. Bush a hard-drinking national guardsman. He has enormous time in grade, as the military calls it, and it strikes us that no matter who wins the presidency the country could use his long perspective for years to come.