Shenanigans at polling stations is nothing new - ask your grandparents [View all]

[TheDormouse]

August 2, 1986

WASHINGTON — Four witnesses Friday disputed Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist's sworn testimony that he had not harassed or intimidated minority voters in the early 1960s....

Sydney Smith, now a La Jolla, Calif., psychoanalyst, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had seen Rehnquist approach two black men waiting in line to vote in the 1960 or 1962 election in Phoenix, challenge their ability to read and tell them, "I would ask you to leave." ...

James Brosnahan, a San Francisco lawyer, told of being called at the 1962 election to a south Phoenix precinct as an assistant U.S. attorney to investigate complaints about challenges being made to black and Latino voters.

Brosnahan, whom Rehnquist has acknowledged knowing, said he is "certain" that Rehnquist was acting as a challenger at the polling place and that "a number of people" waiting to vote pointed him out as a person causing problems. "I have no doubt about that," Brosnahan said....

Manuel Pena, an Arizona Democratic state senator, told of being involved in a "close confrontation" with a Republican challenger at the Nov. 3, 1964, election at a Phoenix precinct. He said he recognized the challenger at the 40% Latino precinct as Rehnquist from a newspaper picture he saw a few years later.

Charles Pine, a former state Democratic Party chairman in Arizona, said Rehnquist "is currently suffering from a conventient lapse of memory" in denying voter intimidation. Pine said he saw Rehnquist at the 1962 election approaching voters and asking them: "Are you qualified to vote?"

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-08-02/news/mn-973_1_justice-rehnquist

A Phoenix lawyer and longtime Democratic activist, who said he did not want to be identified because he expected Justice Rehnquist to be confirmed as Chief Justice, said that at the 1962 election he was photographed by William Rehnquist as he and another Democrat approached a voting precinct in a minority community. Photographing Voters

''We asked him what he was doing, or perhaps he just told us, 'I'm taking pictures of everybody,' '' the lawyer recalled. ''We asked if that wasn't harassment. He just laughed and said, 'There's no film in the camera.' ''

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/04/us/rehnquist-in-arizona-a-militant-conservative-in-60-s-politics.html

William H. Rehnquist was an attorney in private practice in Phoenix, Arizona in the 1950s and 1960s. He was active in the Republican party, and served as Barry Goldwater's campaign manager in the 1964 presidential election. He worked in the Justice Department during the Nixon administration, and was appointed to the Supreme Court by Nixon in 1972. Reagan appointed him Chief Justice in 1986. In all, Rehnquist served 33 years on the Supreme Court.