warren burger, 17 years. john roberts, 6 years. starting with fred vinson. what did you write about him? >> two parts. i have not taken a second look at it recently, as i mentioned to you. there is the discussion of his appointment and about his work. partly through the observations of one of his former law clerks, our third cedar, who was a classmate of mine in high- school and remains a very good friend. we were born from the same days. we have a lot of reasons to be friends. this save me some things in the book. it the second source was the year ahead when i was working for justice rutledge. i had some chances to come in contact with chief justice vinson during that. i speak about those i have personal contact with and some of the opinions he wrote, particularly the year i was a clerk. >> what year did you clerk at the court? >> october 1949. -- the october 1947 term. i said sometime in september of '47. i was there until june or early july of 1948. >> that year you were there, what did you take away? >> i took away a lot. a wonderful experience, as other

warren burger, 17 years. john roberts, 6 years. starting with fred vinson. what did you write about him? >> two parts. appointment and about his work. it is partly about the observations. we were born from the same days. friends. this save me some things in the book. it the second source was the year ahead when i was working for another justice. i had some chances to come in contact with chief justice vinson during that. i talk in the book a little bit about -- i speak about those i have personal contact with and some of the opinions he wrote, particularly in year i was in the court. the court? >> october 1949. i said sometime in september of 47. i was there until june or early july. of 1948. >> that year you were there, what did you take away? >> we took away some wonderful friendships with those in other chambers. i learned a lot about the law court. things are still pretty much the same. as well as things that have changed over the years. it was very rewarding. >> how did you get that? >> that is a long story, too. clerkship. it was the summer of 1947. if

warren burger used it when he retired. when i joined the court, he wanted to keep his chambers, and i did not like to make -- i did not want to make an issue out of it. i first moved into the location at the front of the court. and then i was able to leave that office and moved halfway down the hall when tom clark died. he had chambers on the side. when potter stewart retired, i moved into his chambers on the corner, which was a beautiful office. i stayed there until they did the serious redecoration three or four years ago. justice is chambers remodeled, the justice had to take temporary quarters elsewhere. when a remodeled my chambers, i moved into justice o'connor's chambers and i liked them, so i just stayed there. i was there until i retired. >> you served with 19 of the 112 justices over the years. gore did the closest to personally? >> -- who were you the closest to personally? >> i should have an answer to that question. i have been digging about it lately. -- i have been thinking about it lately. i was very fond o

. >> charlie: then came warren burger. describe him. >> well there are different ways to characterize him. he was of course very much inrested in improving the administrative side of the la generally in particular. he also is responsible for some very important decisions that i don't think he's given adequate credit for. when i think i seen it early in my chapters is the nixon cas >> charlie: u.s. versus nixon. >> yes. it really demonstrates that the court really is an independent institution motivated by the law rather than by polits. >> charlie: it also suggests something that somebody thought it was important to have a unanimous decision because the stakes were so high or not. >> i hadn't thought about that to tell you the truth. but the fact that it was unanimous i think was significant. you're right. >> charlie: the other important decision was roe vs. wade in the berger court. >> it was a veryimportant decision. i say in the book and it really is my view that it was not as controversy at the time it was announced, it