As chief justice of the United States, Warren Earl Burger certainly looked the part.
His wavy white hair and rich baritone voice gave him the appearance and sound of judicial authority. Some described him as "the chief justice from Central Casting."For 17 years, during which he presided at five presidential inaugurations, Burger relished the role. He also left lasting marks on America's legal landscape. He died Sunday at age 87.
More than two decades ago, he wrote landmark Supreme Court opinions setting still-used standards on obscenity and religious freedom. He consistently opposed what he viewed as the "coddling" of criminals but also wrote many opinions praised by liberals.
"Justice Burger was a strong, powerful, visionary chief justice who opened the doors of opportunity," President Clinton said in a statement issued in Little Rock, Ark. "His expansive view of the Constitution and his tireless service will leave a lasting imprint on the court and our nation."
The chief justice spoke for the court when it established busing as a tool for racially desegregating public schools, expanded public access to the nation's courts and enhanced women's protection against sex discrimination.
He wrote the 1974 decision that forced the man who appointed him, then-President Richard Nixon, to surrender White House tape recordings and papers to be used as evidence in the trial of presidential aides accused of covering up the Watergate scandal. The ruling was a major factor in Nixon's decision to resign.
At the Supreme Court, he was known as a man with an eye for detail. He chose the carpeting for the court's cafeteria and much of the building's furniture.
Burger routinely put in 80-hour weeks on his Supreme Court work, his ceremonial duties as chief justice and his crusade to improve the administration of justice.
Griffin Bell, President Jimmy Carter's attorney general, once called Burger "a superstar of court administration" for his work in bringing about technical advances and better training for judges and lawyers.
Some criticized Burger as pompous, and his relationship with news reporters often was stormy. But in private he often displayed a self-deprecating sense of humor.
A talented sculptor, he kept in his Supreme Court chambers a bronze bust of Benjamin Franklin that he made at age 15. However, he said, "I am to the art of sculpture what a bricklayer is to architecture."
Telling of his first appearance as a government lawyer before the top court, Burger said he finished his argument and sat down after only 12 minutes of the 60 allotted to him.
"Years later, one justice told me he thought I had suffered a heart attack," Burger recalled.
He campaigned for prison reform, saying the country should move away from "prison warehouses" and instead build "factories with fences" in which inmates can learn a marketable skill so they can earn a living after release.
A lifelong gun owner, Burger called for stricter gun control in 1990. He also disputed the idea that the Constitution protects an individual's right to bear arms.
"Surely the Second Amendment does not remotely guarantee every person the constitutional right to have a `Saturday night special' or a machine gun without any regulation whatever," he wrote in 1991.
Burger presided over the Supreme Court during a time when it began moving to the right from the liberal Warren Court era of the 1960s. He retired in 1986 to lead the national celebration of the Constitution's 200th anniversary in 1987 and the Bill of Rights' bicentennial two years later.
Later, he wrote a book about Supreme Court cases, and he was a sought-after speaker.
His former Justice Department colleague, William P. Rogers, attorney general during the Eisenhower administration and secretary of state for Nixon, said he believes Burger has been underappreciated. But in time, "he'll be appreciated as a great constitutional justice who was also a pragmatist."
"The fact that he really understood the Constitution and lived it and believed in it and wrote about it with such sincerity will be remembered," Rogers said.
Burger's wife of 61 years, Elvera, died last year. They had a son, Wade, and a daughter, Margaret, and two grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.