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as chief justice. This was because Alito was a reliable member of the Court’s conservative
wing, whereas O’Connor had been a “swing voter.”Appointments by obama. President Barack Obama had two opportunities to fill
Supreme Court vacancies in the first two years of his term. The vacancies resulted from
the retirement of justices David Souter and John Paul Stevens. Both had been members of
the Court’s so-called liberal wing, so Obama’s appointments did not change the ideologi-
cal balance of the Court. Obama chose two women: Sonia Sotomayor, who had been an
appeals court judge and is the Court’s first Hispanic member, and Elena Kagan, who had
been Obama’s solicitor general.The senate’s Role
Ideology also plays a large role in the Senate’s confirmation hearings, and presidential
nominees to the Supreme Court have not always been confirmed. In fact, almost 20 per-
cent of presidential nominations to the Supreme Court have either been rejected or not
been acted on by the Senate.confirming supreme court Appointments. The U.S. Senate had a long record of
refusing to confirm the president’s judicial nominations from the beginning of Andrew
Jackson’s presidency in 1829 to the end of Ulysses Grant’s presidency in 1877. From 1894
until 1968, however, only three nominees were not confirmed. Then, from 1968 through
1987, four presidential nominees to the highest court were rejected.controversial Appointments. One of the most memorable of these rejections was the
Senate’s refusal to confirm Robert Bork—an unusually conservative nominee—in 1987.
Many observers saw the Bork confirmation battle as a turning point after which confir-
mations became much more partisan. Another controversial appointment was that of
Clarence Thomas, who underwent a volatile and acrimonious confirmation hearing in
1991, replete with charges against him of sexual harassment. He was ultimately confirmed
by the Senate, nonetheless.
President Clinton had little trouble gaining approval for both of his nominees to the
Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. President George W. Bush’s
nominees faced hostile grilling in their confirmation hearings, however, and Bush was
forced to withdraw the nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers when it became
clear she would not be confirmed.Lower court Appointments. Presidents have often had great trouble with appoint-
ments to district and appeals courts. For an extended period during the presidency of Bill
Clinton, the Republican majority in Congress adopted a strategy of trying to block almost
every action taken by the administration—including judicial appointments.
The modern understanding that sixty votes are required before the Senate will con-
sider a major measure has given the minority party significant power as well. After 2000,
the Democratic minority in the Senate was able to hold up many of George W. Bush’s
more controversial judicial appointments. Frustrated Republican senators threatened to
use the “nuclear option,” under which Senate rules would be revised to disallow filibus-
ters against judicial nominees. In the end, a bipartisan group engineered a compromise to
preserve the filibuster.
President Obama has also had considerable difficulty in getting his judicial candidates
approved by the Senate. This was especially true after the 2010 elections, when a number
of newly elected Republicans replaced Democratic senators.9781285436388_12_ch12_271-296.indd 285 10/29/13 11:01 AM
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