Miranda v. Arizona

About the Author

Earl Warren, chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969, authored the Court's opinion in Miranda v. Arizona. Joining him were Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, William Brennan, and Abe Fortas. These five formed a reliable liberal voting bloc that pushed for constitutional reforms in many areas during the 1960s. (Justice Fortas, replaced by Arthur Goldberg in 1965, and Thurgood Marshall, who joined the Court in 1967, were also members of this bloc.) By custom, the chief justice, when voting in the majority, assigns the authorship of the Court's opinion; in this case, to write an opinion sure to stir controversy, Warren chose himself.

President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as chief justice in 1953. A Republican, Warren had served California as attorney general and three times was elected the state's governor. Eisenhower expressed surprise and disappointment when his choice for chief justice became the strong leader of a Court that boldly took American society in progressive directions in areas of race relations, legislative apportionment, free speech, and rights of the accused.

Dissenting opinions in Miranda were written by Tom Clark, appointed by President Harry Truman, for whom Clark had served as U.S. attorney general; by John Harlan, another Eisenhower appointee and grandson of Justice John Marshall Harlan, who famously dissented in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); and by Byron White, appointed by President John F. Kennedy. These justices, along with Potter Stewart, who joined the dissents of Harlan and White—who also joined each other's dissents—often took conservative positions when casting votes in cases decided by the Warren Court.