Chief Justice of The United States Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, will visit NIU Thursday to meet with students, professors and the public.

Rehnquist will address his audience at 8 p.m. in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium, located in the Holmes Student Center. His presentation is titled, “An Independent Judiciary: Bulwark of the Constitution.”

Rehnquist has served on the nation’s highest court for 16 years, and was chosen by President Reagan to serve as chief justice in 1986.

Rehnquist, 64, graduated Phi Beta Kappa in political science from Stanford University in 1948 and earned a Stanford Master’s Degree in 1949. Rehnquist completed his second master’s degree in government from Harvard, and in 1952 he graduated first in his class from Stanford Law School.

Rehnquist has served as assistant attorney general under Richard Nixon. He was later nominated by Nixon as an associate justice of the high court.

Rehnquist’s nomination to the justice position of the supreme court met with considerable opposition, but he was finally confirmed as a member in January of 1972.

Rehnquist was nominated by President Reagan on June 17,1986, and was sworn in as chief justice Sept. 26 of that same year.