Law: Nine Minds of Its Own

At term's end, the Burger Court still defies all labels

By now, the house that former Chief Justice Earl Warren built was supposed to have been reduced to ruins. The current Supreme Court, which includes four Justices appointed by Richard Nixon and one named by Gerald Ford, was expected to undo many of the far-reaching precedents that Warren's liberal court fashioned between 1954 and 1969 on race, defendants' rights and other explosive issues. Yet as Chief Justice Warren Burger and his colleagues packed their summer bags last week, appraisers of their latest term agreed on one thing,...