Gregg Costa Writes About Post-9/11 Actions of U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice William Rehnquist for Wall Street Journal

In the Media  |  September 10, 2026

The Wall Street Journal

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Partner Gregg Costa authored the Wall Street Journal’s “The Emergency Supreme Court Order of Sept. 12, 2001,” which details what happened at the Supreme Court on 9/11 and the following day.  Gregg, who was a clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on 9/11, discusses Rehnquist’s insistence on ruling in Bagley v. Byrd, a stay of execution motion, the following day. Gregg also talks about Rehnquist wanting to keep a sense of normalcy with routine aspects of his life, including his weekly tennis matches with his clerks.

“The landmark decisions would come,” Gregg writes. “But when I think back on my time at the court and William Rehnquist’s leadership, Bagley remains at the forefront. The two pages it occupies in the U.S. Reports quietly announce that the Supreme Court, like the rest of the country, wouldn’t be deterred from its work.”