Nation: A PROFESSIONAL FOR THE HIGH COURT

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IN protocol, the Chief Justice of the United States stands behind the President, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. But in his impact on the national life, he has the potential of surpassing even the Chief Executive.

His tenure is measured in decades rather than years. His authority can in fluence the most important acts of the executive and legislative branches, as well as the fate of the individual citizen. Yet when President Nixon walked into the East Room of the White House last week to announce what he called the most important appointment of his Administration, reporters glanced at the very distinguished-looking man beside him and whispered to each other: "Who is he?"

Their confusion was understandable.

Warren Earl Burger, Nixon's choice to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren, is in many ways a judge's judge — and an al most total unknown outside the legal community. In 13 years on the U.S.

Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he has been intelligent but not brilliant, thorough but not imaginative, moderate but not innovative.

Strikingly similar to the President in temperament and background, Burger agrees firmly with Nixon that the Supreme Court has gone too far in areas such as protecting the rights of criminal defendants. Above all, he is the kind of man that Nixon feels the court needs in the wake of the Fortas scandal. Generally centrist in politics and cautious in law, Burger, a Republican, is neither dogmatic on the bench nor strongly oriented ideologically. He is in every way a professional jurist and a man of unquestioned probity, with the Midwestern virtues that Nixon so much admires. If, as expected, Nixon appoints a man of similar convictions to replace Abe Fortas, the court will have a nonactivist or moderate majority for the first time since the mid-1950s, giving Burger and his colleagues an opportunity to amend some of the court's most controversial decisions if they so choose.

The court that had seemed safely in the hands of activists—or judicial liberals—now seems destined for a somewhat less ambitious role that may last far longer than the Nixon administration. Though there is unlikely to be a sudden shift in direction, the differences could in time be profound. "We are under a Constitution," Charles Evans Hughes remarked before he himself became Chief Justice, "but the Constitution is what the judges say it is."

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Unlike the ill-fated Fortas, who immediately ran into trouble when President Johnson nominated him for the spot last year, Burger should have no difficulty winning Senate confirmation. He is not subject to the charge of cronyism, and Nixon is at the beginning rather than the end of his presidency. While Burger has known Nixon for 21 years, he has seen the President only three times in the past 13 years—the third time only three minutes before they walked into the East Room last week. While he is generally of the conservative school, he is moderate enough, particularly on racial issues, not to offend most liberals too greatly. Finally, as Nixon pointedly noted—his mind obviously on the financial dealings that forced Fortas to resign a fortnight ago —Burger has shown "unquestioned integrity throughout his private and public life."