In two days of ceremony honoring the nation's 16th chief justice, the casket bearing William H. Rehnquist's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court where he devoted more than three decades of his life.
Rehnquist's casket was being placed in the Supreme Court's Great Hall on Tuesday on the Lincoln Catafalque, the structure on which President Lincoln's coffin rested at the Rotunda of the Capitol. Congress lent the structure to the court.
Rehnquist's pallbearers were to include some of his former law clerks, highlighting a career as a Supreme Court justice that began in 1972. It wasn't publicly disclosed whether Rehnquist's designated successor, John Roberts, would be one of them. Rehnquist became chief justice in 1986.
On Monday morning, Roberts paid tribute to Rehnquist while standing at
President Bush's side, calling the late chief justice "a man I deeply respect and admire, a man who has been very kind to me for 25 years."
Roberts' comments came during the president's surprise announcement that he was nominating the former Rehnquist law clerk to be chief justice.
After the casket's arrival at the court, scheduled for 10 a.m., the remaining justices, followed by the court staff, were to pay their respects.
Public viewing was to take place from 10:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Tuesday and from 10 a.m. until noon Wednesday.
On Wednesday, funeral services will be at 2 p.m. at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, with funeral services open to friends and family.
Burial at Arlington National Cemetery will be private.
The bodies of Rehnquist's two immediate predecessors, Warren E. Burger and Earl Warren, also are buried at Arlington. Burger and Warren lay in repose in the Supreme Court Building before their services.
As chief justice, Rehnquist is entitled to a state-sponsored official funeral, a ceremony that includes a 19-gun salute, four ruffles and flourishes from drums and bugles, and the last 32 bars of the John Philip Sousa march "Stars and Stripes Forever" among other military honors.
Rehnquist, 80, died Saturday at his home.
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