Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 70, sent shock waves through
the marble hallways of the U.S. Supreme Court when he showed up
wearing a black robe with brilliant gold stripes on each sleeve.
For generations, Supreme Court justices have worn plain black
robes--a visible sign of their fierce neutrality. Rehnquist said
he personally designed the new adornment--four inch-wide
horizontal stripes per sleeve, situated midway between shoulder
and elbow. He got the idea, he said, by watching the Gilbert &
Sullivan comic opera "Iolanthe." A British lord chancellor is
decorated that way.