Editing Earl Warren (section)

==Final years and death==
[[File:Chief Justice Earl Warren (18974663660).jpg|thumb|Grave at Arlington National Cemetery]]

After stepping down from the Court, Warren began working on his memoirs and took numerous speaking engagements. He also advocated for an end to the Vietnam War and the elimination of poverty.{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=515–516}} He avoided publicly criticizing the [[Burger Court]], but was privately distressed by the Court's increasingly conservative holdings.{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=518–520}} He closely followed investigations into the [[Watergate scandal]], a major political scandal that stemmed from a break-in of the [[Democratic National Committee]]'s headquarters and the Nixon administration's subsequent attempts to cover up that break-in. Warren continued to hold Nixon in low regard, privately stating that Nixon was "perhaps the most despicable president that this country has ever had."{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=521–522}}

Five years into retirement, Warren died due to [[cardiac arrest]] at [[MedStar Georgetown University Hospital|Georgetown University Hospital]] in Washington, D.C., at 8:10&nbsp;p.m. on July 9, 1974, at the age of 83.<ref name=":21">{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-earl-warren-19740710-story.html|title=From the Archives: Earl Warren Dies at 83; Chief Justice for 16 Years|date=July 10, 1974|work=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=October 6, 2019}}</ref> He had been hospitalized since July 2 due to [[congestive heart failure]] and [[coronary insufficiency]].<ref name=":21" /> On that same day, he was visited by Justices Brennan and Douglas, until 5:30&nbsp;p.m.<ref name=":21" /> Warren could not resist asking his friends whether the Court would order President Nixon to release the sixty-four tapes demanded by the Watergate investigation. Both justices assured him that the court had voted unanimously in ''[[United States v. Nixon]]'' for the release of the tapes. Relieved, Warren died just a few hours later, safe in the knowledge that the Court he had so loved would force justice on the man who had been his most bitter foe.{{sfn|Newton|2006|page=514}}{{efn|Facing [[Federal impeachment in the United States|impeachment]], Nixon resigned from office on August 9, 1974. He was succeeded by [[Gerald Ford]].{{Sfn|Cray|1997|pp=528–529}}}}

Warren had his wife and one of his daughters, Nina Elizabeth Brien, at his bedside when he died.<ref name=":21" /> After he [[Lying in state#United States|lay in repose]] in the Great Hall of the [[United States Supreme Court Building]], his funeral was held at [[Washington National Cathedral]], and he was interred at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].{{Sfn|Woodward|Armstrong|1979|p=385}}  The only other former governor of California whose final funeral services did not take place in California would be [[Ronald Reagan]], who became [[President of the United States]] and whose [[Death and state funeral of Ronald Reagan|final funeral service]] also took place at Washington National Cathedral.