The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist was known for his love of Gilbert and Sullivan. Their operetta “Iolanthe” inspired Rehnquist to add gold stripes to the arms of his black robe. It turns out his passion dated to when he clerked for the late Justice Robert Jackson 55 years ago.
Jackson scholar John Barrett of St. John’s University School of Law in New York recently found a parody of a song from “Mikado” written by Rehnquist that sat unnoticed for 50 years in Jackson’s papers at the Library of Congress. Barrett wrote about it in the latest issue of the unconventional law review Green Bag.
