Ideology aside, it's going to be difficult to run the court any better than he did. We will look back on the Rehnquist court as one of the smoothest in the court's history.

They are willing to test the boundaries of present U.S. Supreme Court doctrine.

I think the document has to be read from a commonsense perspective. The constitution is not a suicide pact. In a sense, that has to be the answer.

This court certainly doesn't lack self-confidence. It's a conservative activism for the most part, but the justices aren't afraid to decide where the legal lines are drawn.

We're talking about a constitution that is in its third century. That's really quite remarkable among any of the nations of the world. It suggests an essential stability of our political system that many may envy but not many can emulate.

In many ways, the U.S. Supreme Court remains the paradigm.