Branch Davidians

The Branch Davidians are a religious sect with origins in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. They are best known for their standoff with federal agents in Waco, Texas, in 1993 that resulted in the death of 86 of their members.

Formed in 1959 by Ben Roden, the Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists believe that they are God’s chosen people for the last days prior to the end of the world. Central to their theology is their belief in the coming of a messiah who will be able to explain the Seven Seals of Revelation, a series of prophecies contained in the Book of Revelation. Whoever can explain the Seven Seals will unlock the true meaning of the Bible. Many believed that David Koresh had that ability.

Ben Roden died in 1978 and left his wife, Lois, as president of the church. Vernon Howell joined the organization in 1981 and experienced his first vision from God in 1983, generating friction between himself and George Roden, Lois Roden’s son. Howell eventually seized control of the group and, in 1990, changed his name to David Koresh: “David” for the biblical King David of the Israelites, and “Koresh,” Hebrew for Cyrus, the Persian king who freed the Israelites from Babylon.

The Branch Davidians came under suspicion, based on reports by previous Branch Davidian members, in late 1990 and early 1991 from California, Michigan, and Texas law enforcement agencies for possible weapons violations. In February 1993 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) began its investigation of possible weapons violations as well as allegations of sexual and physical child abuse within the group’s compound outside Waco, Texas. The ATF attempted to serve a warrant on David Koresh on February 28. A gun battle ensued in which six Branch Davidians and four ATF agents were killed. At this point the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under the auspices of U. S. Attorney General Janet Reno, assumed control of the matter and initiated a 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian compound, during which several Branch Davidians left the compound.

At the outset, David Koresh agreed to surrender if the FBI broadcast one of his sermons live on March 2. The FBI complied, but Koresh reneged on his promise to surrender. Koresh offered another compromise on April 14, saying that he would exit the compound peacefully once he had completed his manuscript explaining the Seven Seals. Completing his explanation of the core of the Branch Davidian theology would have established him as the messiah in the eyes of his followers. Whether Koresh would have surrendered after completing this task will never be known.

On April 19 the FBI launched an assault on the compound. When the Branch Davidians resisted, the FBI used tear gas to subdue those inside the compound. Approximately six hours after the raid began, fires broke out inside the compound, and FBI agents reported hearing gunfire inside as well. The fire resulted in the death of 86 Branch Davidians, while nine escaped and were arrested. Of the nine, eight were convicted on charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to weapons violations.

Following the tragic loss of life at Waco, criticism mounted against the FBI and the Justice Department, claiming that the agents involved, and Attorney General Janet Reno, were not justified in their use of force and that federal agents were responsible for the fire that destroyed the compound. In August 1999 a document surfaced indicating that the FBI had used incendiary tear gas in the assault, an allegation that the FBI had previously denied. In response to this new evidence, Janet Reno appointed former senator John C. Danforth to investigate the incident. On July 21, 2000, Danforth issued a report exonerating both the FBI and the Justice Department. The evidence in the report showed that the fires began inside the Waco compound and were likely started by the Branch Davidians. The Danforth report also concluded that federal agents did not initiate the conflict by firing their weapons at the complex, but only did so later, after those inside resisted, and that the actions undertaken by the FBI and approved by Janet Reno did not constitute an improper use of armed force.

Further reading: Robert Emmet Long, ed., Religious Quits in America (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1994); Stuart A. Wright, ed., Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

—William L. Glankler

Brennan, William J., Jr. (1906-1997) associate justice of the Supreme Court

William J. Brennan, Jr., served as an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court from 1956 to 1990 and is recognized as a leading practitioner of liberal judicial activism, as well as one of the most influential public officials of the postWorld War II era. Brennan received his B. A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928 and an LL. B. from Harvard Law School in 1931. He served on the New Jersey Appellate Court, Superior Court, and Supreme Court between 1949 and 1956 and was the father of three children.

Brennan’s outlook was shaped by two reformist mentors, including his father, William, Sr., a Democratic labor leader and municipal official in Newark, New Jersey; and New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Arthur Vanderbilt, a Republican and famed legal innovator. Brennan’s father stressed to his son that justice must be secured for underprivileged people. Vanderbilt emphasized how important proper procedure and due process were to securing individual liberty. Brennan’s legal thinking was influenced by Harvard University law professor Felix Frankfurter. Brennan applied the lessons he learned from these men in his efforts to ensure that the law satisfied the evolving “demands of human dignity.”

When Justice Sherman Minton retired in 1956, a presidential election year, President Eisenhower sought a replacement who was both Roman Catholic and Democratic, to help him win votes with those two blocs. Attorney General Brownell, a friend of Arthur Vanderbilt, selected Vanderbilt’s protege, Brennan. Brennan joined the Court as a recess appointment, before receiving Senate confirmation in 1957.

Chief Justice Warren quickly made Brennan his closest friend and adviser on the Court. The two conferred weekly during Court terms to review cases and plot strategy to win majorities. Justice Brennan always asked his new law clerks what the most important principle of constitutional law was. He then gleefully answered his own question by holding up the five fingers of one hand and exclaiming: “You can’t do anything around here without five votes.” Only Chief Justice John Marshall equaled Brennan at persuading a Supreme Court majority to vote his way. Brennan was a genius of persuasion and knew exactly how to win a colleague’s agreement. He was the only justice who read all certiorari petitions to the Court. Brennan also boasted an encyclopedic memory of Supreme Court case law. Using these skills, Brennan led the Earl Warren, Warren E. Burger, and early William Rehnquist Courts to revolutionize the American public order in favor of his “jurisprudence of dignity.”

Brennan venerated the Bill of Rights. He believe it applied directly to the states (known as incorporation). The First Amendment’s freedom of expression was of particular importance to him. In Roth v. United States (1957), the Court redefined obscenity in a way that loosened state and local regulation of material once regarded as pornographic. The Court also amended libel law in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), making it nearly impossible for public figures to win suits against the news media. New York Times v. U. S. (1971), the Pentagon Papers case, freed

Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (Robert Oakes, National Geographical Society, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States)

The media to pursue government secrets even of national security importance. In Te:xas v. Johnson (1989) and United States v. Eichman (1990), the majority struck down state and federal statutes prohibiting burning of the American flag. Brennan also joined majorities in the Warren Court in decisions that banned public prayer in schools and mandated strict separation of church and state.

Earl Warren thought the most important case of his tenure was Baker v. Carr (1962), a Brennan opinion. This Tennessee case revolutionized American democracy by compelling state legislative reapportionment to eventually bring about an unprecedented “one person, one vote” distribution. When reapportioning, a state’s rural interests had often favored themselves at urban districts’ expense. Opinion polls showed popular support of the decision in favor of reapportionment, but some scholars thought this case usurped state self-government, and others noted that American republican self-government was historically hostile to proportional representation.

Brennan led another 5-4 vote in Furman v. Georgia (1972), striking down the death penalty for violating the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Only Justice Marshall joined with Brennan’s argument against the death penalty after the Court reversed itself four years later in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). The Court succeeded in incorporating the Bill of Rights into state criminal procedure, but rising crime rates rendered these reforms unpopular with law enforcement officials and the public at large. These decisions directly assisted the defeat of Justice Abe Fortas’s nomination to be chief justice in 1968, thus allowing President Richard M. Nixon to replace Earl Warren with Warren Burger in 1969.

Brennan also played an important role in changing racial and gender law. In Cooper v. Aaron (1958), he wrote a unanimous opinion justifying the Court’s power to order state governments to racially integrate schools. His opinion in Green v. New Kent County (1968) became the basis for all federally mandated school-busing programs. Brennan joined the majority in justifying affirmative action racial quotas in Gaston v. U. S. (1969), Griggs et al. v. Duke Power Company (1971), and the Bakke (1978) case. Cooper v. Boren (1976), a 7-2 opinion written by Brennan, prepared the ground for gender quotas throughout American life by applying the equal protection clause to laws discriminating between the sexes. Brennan also openly endorsed the Equaf Rights Amendment.

Brennan aided the feminist movement by ruling for sexual liberation cases. He supported the implicit “right to privacy” in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and relied on the “right to privacy” in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), a 6-1 opinion legalizing the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people. This case set up Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion. Roe rewrote the abortion laws in all 50 states. Brennan found himself a target of especially bitter criticism, since he was the only Roman Catholic on the Court and yet had nullified abortion and contraceptive laws upholding central tenets of his church’s teaching. To the nascent conservative movement, Roe became the symbol of an out-of-control, activist Supreme Court.

After President Ronald W. Reagan’s appointment of Justice William Rehnquist as chief justice, Brennan found all but his revolutionary reapportionment decisions whittled away or even overruled. But Brennan stubbornly voted his conscience. He lent support to the emerging gay liberation movement in his Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) dissent. He continued to lobby Court members, especially his replacement, Justice David Souter, after stepping down in 1990. He also continued to reap the adulation of law professors. Brennan remained a controversial figure even after death. His funeral mass in 1997 was marred by a large, loud protest of antiabortion activists.

Further reading: Raoul Berger, Government by Judiciary (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977); Alexander Bickel, The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress (New York: HarperCollins, 1970); John Hart Ely, Democracy and Distrust (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980); John T. Noonan, Jr., Private Choice: Abortion in America (New York: Free Press, 1979); David Savage, Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Court (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992).

—Christopher M. Gray

Breyer, Stephen (1938- ) associate justice of the Supreme Court

Stephen Breyer began his tenure as an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court in 1994. Breyer received a B. A. from Oxford University in 1961 and an LL. B. from Harvard Law School in 1964. He is a professor at Harvard Law School and served as judge on the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as on the U. S. Court of Appeals before serving on the Supreme Court. He is married to the former Joanna Hare and has three children.

President Wiffiam J. Cfinton appointed Breyer to fill the Court vacancy created by Justice Harry Blackmun’s retirement. Since he was an exceptionally well-qualified nominee, with moderate to liberal views on law, the Democratic Senate confirmed him easily.

Breyer offered few surprises as a Supreme Court justice. He exhibited the same attributes there that he had on the First Circuit. His opinions on economic cases displayed a mastery of regulatory problems, especially on antitrust matters. On free speech and moral issues, he tended to rule in liberal fashion, though some critics complained he did not value the First Amendment enough.

Breyer applied this analytical approach even to controversial cases like the Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) “partial-birth” abortion decision and the Bush v. Gore (2000) presidential ballot ruling.

Further reading: The Oyez Project. Justices. Stephen G. Breyer. Available online. URL: Http://www. oyez. org/jus-tices/stephen g breyer/. Accessed January 8, 2009; Melvin I. Urofsky, Biographical Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court (Washington, D. C.: CQ Press, 2006).

—Christopher M. Gray