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unanimously recommended his confirmation to the Senate. Six days later the Senate voted 74 to 3 to confirm him. The process from nomination to confirmation had taken only eighteen days.
    A week later, only one week before he would be sworn in as Chief Justice, Burger was in his office at the Court of Appeals when he got some very distressing news. The Supreme Court had announced that it had overruled his Court of Appeals decision in a case involving the flamboyant New York black Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. The vote was an overwhelming 7 to 1, with Stewart the lone dissenter. Warren himself had written the majority opinion (Powell v. McCormack). The press would have a field day.
    The House of Representatives had voted to deny Powell his seat because he had flouted a slander judgment and allegedly had misused funds. Burger's opinion, one of three separate ones, held for the House against Powell. Powell had appealed to the Supreme Court, and now Warren had declared for a heavy majority that Congress could not deny the Congressman his seat. The reversal was a typical example of the Warren Court's activism—mere meddling in Burger's view. He had already been overruled twice that year, but this was the first time since his nomination. There should have been some way for Warren to avoid a direct slap at him, perhaps with an unsigned opinion. Being reversed by the Supreme Court, however, would soon be a thing of the past. He could take comfort in that. In one more week, the Warren era would be over.
    Burger vowed to himself that he would grasp the reins of power immediately. David Bazelon would be his model. For the past six years he had watched enviously as Bazelon used his position as Chief Judge to serve his own philosophy. As spokesman for the Court of Appeals, as its senior judge and chief administrator, Bazelon was able to assign extra law clerks, and control the office space, supplies and accouterments that make working conditions a pleasure or an annoyance. His influence with his colleagues, and especially the new judges, was legendary. They fell all too easily under his spell. For Burger, that too was now an old battle, a thing of the past.
    Later that week, Burger left his office in the Court of Appeals and went out to Pennsylvania Avenue to meet the Solicitor General Erwin N. Griswold, the man responsible for arguing the federal government's cases before the Supreme Court. Griswold had the presidential commission, signed by the President and the Attorney General, that appointed Burger. It was to be delivered to the Court before the swearing-in.
    Griswold and Burger took a cab to the Court, where Warren greeted them in his chambers. The Powell case was apparently on his mind. "I hated to decide for Powell," Warren told them.
    Griswold thought Warren was going to explain the difficulty and awkwardness in overruling the next Chief Justice —perhaps apologize, saying that, of course, he had to call them as he saw them. Instead, Warren told them that he didn't like Powell and regretted having to decide in his favor. Powell was a disgrace, Warren said. But as a matter of law, it would be impossible to let Congress exclude members in such fashion. In denying Powell his seat, Congress had asserted an absolute and unreviewable right to determine who was suited to sit, contrary to what the Constitution said. "It was perfectly clear," Warren remarked. 'There was no other way to decide it Anybody could see that."
    My God, Griswold thought, Warren must not realize that Burger was one of the lower court judges he had just overruled. Griswold knew Warren did not write his own opinions, but was he so out of touch? Griswold carefully avoided looking at Burger. He would have smiled, and perhaps Burger would not think it one bit funny. The meeting was soon over and as they walked out, Burger good-naturedly shrugged off Warren's comment "He certainly didn't give me much credit for what I did in the Adam Clayton Powell case," he told