United States Supreme Court Chief Justice, California Governor. As leader of the Supreme Court during a period of unprecedented judicial activism, there is probably no other Chief Justice of the United States who evoked greater controversy in his time. Earl Warren was born in Los Angeles, California on March 19, 1891, the son of a Norwegian immigrant who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Raised in Bakersfield, Warren worked his way through college, receiving a bachelor of laws degree from the University of California in 1912. During World War I (WWI), he served in the U.S. Army as a First Lieutenant. After the war, the young lawyer became a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. He was elected district attorney of the county in 1925. Prior to gaining the California governorship, Warren served as attorney general from 1939-1943, gaining the image of an effective foe of racketeers. Sparking enmity within some circles to this day was Warren's role during WWII in orchestrating removal of persons of Japanese descent to internment camps. Warren's service as the 30th Governor of California stretched from 1943-1953. After the war, Warren participated in Republican politics at the national level, serving as Thomas Dewey's vice presidential running mate in 1948. Warren eyed the Republican presidential nomination in 1952, but it went to the popular war hero, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Following the death of Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson on September 8, 1953, it was Eisenhower who nominated Warren to the post of Chief Justice of the United States in 1953, out of gratitude for delivering the California vote in the presidential election. Warren won easy Senate confirmation. The year after he became Chief Justice, Warren wrote for a unanimous court in banning segregation in the nation's schools in the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The "Warren Court" proceeded to issue a stream of decisions striking down other aspects of segregation and broadening civil rights. As a result of the Warren Court's activist bent, the leader of that court soon became a target of angry conservatives. Although Warren had been a vocal anti-Communist as governor, he was now denounced by Robert Welch, head of the John Birch Society, as a knowing member of the Communist conspiracy. "Impeach Earl Warren" bumper stickers and billboards appeared across the nation. While the far-right was most vocal in assailing Warren, grumblings concerning the Warren's Court's "expansionist" utterances and "judicial legislation" were heard from those moderate conservatives as well. In his memoirs, former president Richard Nixon reflected that the Warren Court had gone too far in attempting "to remake American society according to their own social, political and ideological precepts." In 1963, the "Warren Commission" was formed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Chief Justice headed the effort to determine if the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was something more than a one-man undertaking by Lee Harvey Oswald. The following year, the commission issued a report that concluded that no conspiracy existed. The commission's investigation has been assailed through the years as superficial by those advancing other theories. Warren retired from the bench in 1969 and died five years later at age 83.