Have nominees for SCOTUS ever been turned down. I know Bork was but

[patricia92243]

anybody else. Do we really just go through a pretense of questioning the candidate like we were really going to refuse them when all along we are just going to accept whatever person the president says we should.

It seems like everybody is accepting the fact that Harriet will be on the court, but she has to go thru this grilling first. What's the purpose if it's really already decided? Seems like some sort of silly game to me.

[dsc]

1. It has happened several times

Abe Fortas was turned down for a promotion to Chief Justice, thus allowing Nixon to appoint Berger. Nixon had two turned down in a row and had to settle on Renquist. The second of those was so bad that even Republicans were defending him by saying that mediocre people needed representation on the court. The were four or five others turned down but they were not in this century.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. List of failed nominations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Failed_Nominations_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

[Lancer]

3. Yes. Nixon had it happen twice.

Very abbreviated version. After Justice Harlan died in 1971, Nixon put up two nominees in a row, Carswell and Haynsworth, both of whom failed the Senate vote because of their ideologies. Nixon's third choice, Harry Blackmun, made it through the hurdles and went on to write the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade.

There are others, but those two come to mind right away.

[karlrschneider]

5. Carswell rings a bell with me but it seems to have been from some other

thing than the SC nomination. Was his 1st name James, or am I thinking of Carville? Damn, the old RAM is getting slow. ;-)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. G. Harold Carswell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Failed_Nominations_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

[karlrschneider]

10. AH...okay thanks a lot

:D

[ashling]

14. One of them (or both) had ethical improprieties

I should remember this because I was taking poli sci in college at the time and we discussed it there, but I one of these judges had sat on cases where he had a serious conflict of interest.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Two in Clinton's time for having illegal immigrants as nannies.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. I think those two were for cabinet posts.

Zoe Baird was nominated for attorney general.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. whoops!

Thanks for the correction. I'm sure that's who I'm confusing because they talked in detail about her writings.

[Lancer]

8. No they were for SCOTUS -- Clinton got to the letter "G"

and found Douglas Ginsburg, who had inhaled and admitted it; and Lani Guinier (sp?) who did have the nanny problem. I'm almost positive both dropped out of contention before things reached a vote. Before having to move on to "H," Clinton found Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who turned out to be a fine choice, IMO.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Look it up, duh. Douglas Ginsburg was Reagan's nomination.

For the third time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Failed_Nominations_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Look it up, duh. Lani Guinier was for Asst. Attorney General.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lani_Guinier

[spindrifter]

11. It appears that

Congress, knowing that the USSC is a potential fetter to their plans or the President's, as the case may be, is fairly careful in considering appointees to the SCOTUS, unlike their consideration of Cabinet positions or these miscellaneous agency patronage appointments. The perspective toward the latter two is that they are people the Pres. will be working with, so he should be able to pick his inner circle. The Court, however, is not supposed to be hand-in-glove with the Executive.