Victor,

>Interesting...I did not know that.....but was he white house council at the time of his appointment too?

Not quite, but close. Rehnquist served from 1969 to 1971 as Assistant Attorney General for the The Office of Legal Counsel, which "assists the Attorney General in his function as legal advisor to the President and all the executive branch agencies," according to WikiPedia. "The Office drafts legal opinions of the Attorney General and also provides its own written opinions and oral advice in response to requests from the Counsel to the President, the various agencies of the executive branch, and offices within the Department of Justice."

President Nixon appointed Rehnquist to the Supreme Court in 1971 without prior judicial experience (he was confirmed in December '71) and President Reagan elevated him to Chief Justice in 1986.

Another interesting appointment who had no prior experience as a judge was Earl Warren, who was appointed as Chief Justice without having served any time on the Supreme (or any other) Court. President Eisenhower later said that appointing Warren was one of his deepest regrets, because Warren turned out to much more liberal politically than he had expected.

Interesting factoid about Earl Warren (from Wikipedia): He was elected to three terms as Governor of California. When he ran for his second term in 1946, he ran as a candidate in the open primaries of all three major parties (Republican, Democrat and Progressive) and won all three primaries! Therefore, he won the general election (as a Republican) without any opposition from the other two parties. Pretty amazing, huh?