Best Impeachment Souvenir: For presiding over the president’s impeachment trial, the Senate in true Rotary Club style gave Chief Justice William Rehnquist a mounted gavel. In June, at their super-secret show of skits, the Supreme Court’s law clerks went one better. They gave Rehnquist a T-shirt, complete with Rehnquistian gold-striped sleeves and the following message: “I presided over a presidential impeachment and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”
Gold Stripes Are In, Pantsuits and Press Passes Are Out: Enforcement of the Court’s unstated dress code for journalists was notably quirky this year. An ABC reporter was told not to wear her press credentials around her neck, while an ABC producer was told that a pantsuit was unacceptable. The pantsuit decree was a mistake. As for press passes, the word was that the chief justice does not like the look, and there was concern that reflections off the laminated cards might be distracting.
