Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren voglebam here. When a U. S President nominates someone
Speaker 1: to take over a seat on the Supreme Court, things
Speaker 1: don't always turn as contentious as they do these days.
Speaker 1: Since the Supreme Court was established in sevent nine, presidents
Speaker 1: have sent a hundred and sixty three names to the
Speaker 1: Senate for approval. The Senate has so far approved a
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six of them. That's about seventy seven,
Speaker 1: although seven have also turned down the appointment. Some of
Speaker 1: the nominees have faced a tougher road than others. Of course,
Speaker 1: roughly twenty three don't make it. Some of those were
Speaker 1: outright rejected. Some nominees take their names out of consideration.
Speaker 1: The Senate didn't even bother to vote on ten of
Speaker 1: the president's recommendations, most notably that of Merrick Garland, who
Speaker 1: was nominated by President Barack Obama in twenty six toward
Speaker 1: the end of his second term. Often, though the chosen
Speaker 1: ones breathe through the process. Current Associate Justice Ruth Bader
Speaker 1: Ginsburg want a Senate vote of ninety six to three three.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen eighties, President Ronald Reagan nominated three judges
Speaker 1: who were voted onto the bench unanimously, Sandra Day O'Connor,
Speaker 1: the first woman to serve on the court, anton In Scalia,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Kennedy. We spoke with John Michaels, a professor
Speaker 1: at the u c l A School of Law. He said,
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be a kind of collaboration. There's an
Speaker 1: understanding that there's deference paid to the president's nominee, so
Speaker 1: there has to be something problematic about that nominee to
Speaker 1: not go forward, but welcome to Now these days, in
Speaker 1: a politically fractured nation, things aren't nearly as easy. Something
Speaker 1: problematic is always on hand. Collaboration is a dirty word.
Speaker 1: A Republican led Senate, at odds with President Obama sixteen
Speaker 1: sat on Garland's domination, refusing to even hold a hearing
Speaker 1: when President Donald Trump took office in January seventeen and
Speaker 1: nominated Neil Gorstch to the bench instead. The Gorsetch passed
Speaker 1: the Republican led Senate, but just barely, with a fifty
Speaker 1: four to forty five vote, and only after Republicans changed
Speaker 1: Senate rules to prevent a Democratic filibuster. Even getting to
Speaker 1: the Senate vote is sometimes tricky, as U. S. Circuit
Speaker 1: Court Judge Brett Covna found out in the late summer
Speaker 1: of eighteen, Kavanaugh was nominated by Trump to take over
Speaker 1: the seat of retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy,
Speaker 1: and things turned ugly quickly. Democrats, stinging from the Garland
Speaker 1: snub and the way the Senate pushed through Gorset, and
Speaker 1: fearing a conservative turn that could impact Supreme Court decisions
Speaker 1: for decades, hounded Covenaugh's nomination, and when several women days
Speaker 1: before the Judiciary Committee vote accused Covena of sexual assault,
Speaker 1: Democrats and a key Republican or too called to reopen
Speaker 1: the FBI background investigation into the nominees past and angry tiry,
Speaker 1: Covena was forced to defend himself in front of a
Speaker 1: very public hearing of the committee. But Kavanaugh is not
Speaker 1: the first to be put through the nomination ringer. The
Speaker 1: very first nominee to the Supreme Court to be rejected
Speaker 1: was John Rutledge in s Rutledge had been one of
Speaker 1: the original Associate Justices, but resigned before hearing a case
Speaker 1: to return to South Carolina. When George Washington tapped him
Speaker 1: again to serve as Chief Justice during a Senate recess,
Speaker 1: he returned. During his brief tenure, Rutledge criticized the administration,
Speaker 1: and rumors of mental illness and alcohol abuse spurred on
Speaker 1: by the opposing party press, were rampant. When the Senate
Speaker 1: convened and had a chance to vote, it rejected him
Speaker 1: fourteen to ten. He's the only recess appointed judge that
Speaker 1: didn't later earn a Senate nod. And here are and
Speaker 1: skipping ahead, here are the most recent. Harriet Myers, the
Speaker 1: former Council to President George W. Bush, was nominated to
Speaker 1: replace retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in October of
Speaker 1: two thousand five. It was a surprising choice in that
Speaker 1: Myers had never been a judge. She also had been
Speaker 1: Bush's personal lawyer for many years, going back to his
Speaker 1: time in Texas, which raised flags that the appointment might
Speaker 1: be too political. Meyers struggled with constitutional questions posed to
Speaker 1: her by the Senate Judiciary Committee too. In the end,
Speaker 1: with strong signs that she would not be approved, she
Speaker 1: withdrew from consideration. Clarence Thomas, meanwhile, was a George H. W.
Speaker 1: Bush nominee, A staunchly conservative Thomas went through tense hearings
Speaker 1: in front of the Judiciary Committee in and then Anita Hill,
Speaker 1: a former employee of Thomas's, showed up with charges that
Speaker 1: Thomas had sexually assaulted her. Michael's spoke about those hearings.
Speaker 1: He said, if you go back and watch some of
Speaker 1: the ways that senators were questioning Unita Hill, it's not
Speaker 1: even whether we believe them or not. We weren't really
Speaker 1: understanding what the problems were. Thomas would end up passing
Speaker 1: fifty eight. He still serves on the Court. Robert Bourke
Speaker 1: is the most recent nominee rejected by the full Senate.
Speaker 1: Reagan put his name in in Bourke was voted down
Speaker 1: by the Judiciary Committee, but refused to withdraw his name
Speaker 1: from consideration, making the Senate vote on him. The conservative
Speaker 1: Bork scared many with his views on privacy, civil rights,
Speaker 1: women's rights, and his belief that the Constitution should be
Speaker 1: interpreted through the eyes of those who framed it. His
Speaker 1: contentious hearings led to the verb borking from Ariam Webster
Speaker 1: to attack or defeat a nominee or candidate for public
Speaker 1: office unfairly through an organized campaign of harsh public criticism.
Speaker 1: Or vilification, and there have been others. President Richard Nixon
Speaker 1: had two Supreme Court nominees rejected, Clement Haynesworth, Jr. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy and g. Herald Carswell in nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1: Cars Well was the first at the time to be
Speaker 1: voted down since nineteen thirty. Both were shot down for
Speaker 1: their past views on civil rights and racial equality. We'd
Speaker 1: like to think that the Supreme Court, being the last
Speaker 1: stop on the road to justice, would be able to
Speaker 1: put aside partisanship in politics to make well reasoned judgments
Speaker 1: on what is best for the country. But justices have
Speaker 1: views too, and they are appointed by presidents who have
Speaker 1: their own views and voted on by representatives who have
Speaker 1: yet their own. It's not surprising, then, that these nominees
Speaker 1: are put through a ringer by opposing parties. As much
Speaker 1: as we may hate to see a nominee's life turned
Speaker 1: upside down by the process, it's not just their lives
Speaker 1: on the line, it's the fate of the country. Michael's
Speaker 1: explained it this way. It is a little weird to
Speaker 1: have a system so dependent on a very partisan choice
Speaker 1: by president when the choice just depends on when people die.
Speaker 1: You can just get lucky or unlucky. It would be
Speaker 1: nice in a perfect world if presidents and senators did
Speaker 1: not play power politics with the courts, but that would
Speaker 1: be naive, especially since the court plays a central role
Speaker 1: in American political, social, and economic life. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by John Donovan and produced by Tyler. Playing. For
Speaker 1: more illness and lots of other vigorously approved topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff works dot com.