Editing Earl Warren (section)

===Retirement===
[[File:Richard Nixon 1969 inauguration.png|thumb|upright=1|Chief Justice Warren swears in President Nixon on January 20, 1969.]]

By 1968, Warren was ready to retire from the Court. He hoped to travel the world with his wife, and he wanted to leave the bench before he suffered a mental decline, something that he perceived in both Hugo Black and William Douglas. He also feared that Nixon would win the [[1968 United States presidential election|1968 presidential election]] and appoint a conservative successor if Warren left the Court later. On June 13, 1968, Warren submitted his letter of resignation to President Johnson (who made it official on June 21),<ref>[https://theconversation.com/filling-the-supreme-court-vacancy-lessons-from-1968-55010] and [https://slicethelife.com/2018/06/21/it-was-fifty-years-ago-today-june-21-1968-chief-justice-of-the-u-s-supreme-court-earl-warren-announces-his-retirement]</ref> effective upon the confirmation of a successor. In an election year, confirmation of a successor was not assured; after Warren announced his retirement, about half of the Senate Republican caucus pledged to oppose any Supreme Court appointment prior to the election.{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=494–499}}

Johnson nominated Associate Justice Fortas, a personal friend and adviser to the president, as Warren's successor, and nominated federal appellate judge [[Homer Thornberry]] to succeed Fortas. Republicans and Southern Democrats joined to scuttle Fortas's nomination. Their opposition centered on criticism of the Warren Court, including many decisions that had been handed down before Fortas joined the Court, as well as ethical concerns related to Fortas's paid speeches and closeness with Johnson. Though the majority of the Senate may have favored the confirmation of Fortas, opponents conducted a [[filibuster in the United States Senate|filibuster]], which blocked the Senate from voting on the nomination, and Johnson withdrew the nomination.{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=499–502}} In early 1969, Warren learned that Fortas had made a secret lifetime contract for $20,000 a year to provide private legal advice to [[Louis Wolfson]], a friend and financier in deep legal trouble. Warren immediately asked Fortas to resign, which he did after some consideration.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Artemus|last=Ward|title=An Extraconstitutional Arrangement: Lyndon Johnson and the Fall of the Warren Court|journal=White House Studies|year=2002|volume=2|issue=2|pages=171–183}}</ref>

Nixon defeated [[Hubert Humphrey]] in the 1968 presidential election and took office in January 1969. Though reluctant to be succeeded by a Nixon appointee, Warren declined to withdraw his letter of resignation. He believed that withdrawing the letter would be "a crass admission that he was resigning for political reasons." Nixon and Warren jointly agreed that Warren would retire in June 1969 to ensure that the Court would have a chief justice throughout the 1968 term and to allow Nixon to focus on other matters in the first months of [[presidency of Richard Nixon|his presidency]].{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=502–505}} Nixon did not solicit Warren's opinion regarding the next chief justice and ultimately appointed the conservative federal appellate judge [[Warren E. Burger]].{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=513–514}} Warren later regretted his decision to retire and reflected, "If I had ever known what was going to happen to this country and this Court, I never would have resigned. They would have had to carry me out of there on a plank."{{sfn|Hutchinson|1983|p=928n23}} In addition, he later remarked on his retirement and on the Warren Court, "I would like the Court to be remembered as the people's court."<ref name=":10" />