An Associated Press obituary of Chief Justice Rehnquist by Gina Holland used the phrase "the Rehnquist five." As a result, the phrase has come into widespread usage. In the Westlaw archives, the first recorded usage is a July 1, 1988, opinion piece by Washington Post syndicated columnist Edwin Yoder. The phrase next appears in a June 2, 1991, op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by retired Democratic Senator Tom Eagleton. The first law review usage is in the November 2001 Harvard Law Review, in NYU law professor Larry Kramer's forward to the HLR's annual Supreme Court review.

UPDATE: PoorYoricRants notes that the first use of "Rehnquist five" precedes Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Court. For that matter, so does the second use, by Sen. Eagleton, since Thomas joined the Court in October 1991, and Eagleton was writing in June of that year. Based on the case discussed by Yoder, the pre-Thomas member of the "Rehnquist five" was Justice White, while in Eagleton's article the fifth person could be either White or Souter.