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Washington’s high-court fights date to Washington himself

overcome, to try to stop drafter of the Constitution, withdrawn under pressure
Gorsuch from becoming was the first to succumb to from conservatives.
a justice. If they succeed, politics. The Senate con- In between, President John
Republicans who control firmed Rutledge as a justice Tyler broke with the Whigs
the Senate could change in 1789, a post he gave up who controlled the Senate
the rules and prevail with a a couple of years later to and couldn’t even get a
simple majority vote in the become South Carolina’s vote for three nominees.
100-member body. chief justice. A fourth was rejected and
The struggle spilled over In 1795, Washington nomi- only one of Tyler’s choices
into the Sunday news nated Rutledge to replace ever made it to the court.
shows, where the Senate John Jay as chief justice. A quarter-century later, fol-
Democratic leader, Chuck By then, Rutledge had be- lowing the Civil War, the
Schumer, told NBC’s “Meet come an outspoken op- Republican-dominated
the Press” it’s “highly, highly ponent of the Jay Treaty, Congress actually abol-
This April, 2016 photo shows the Supreme Court in Washington. unlikely” that Gorsuch will which sought to reduce ished a Supreme Court
Supreme Court nominations became politically contentious get 60 votes and Senate tensions with England. A seat rather than act on a
about 222 years ago when the Senate voted down George Majority Leader Mitch Mc- year after ratifying the trea- nomination by President
Washington’s choice for chief justice. Connell vowed the nomi- ty, the Senate voted down Andrew Johnson. Even
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
nee will be confirmed this Rutledge’s nomination. some who have made it
MARK SHERMAN February 2016. week one way or the other. The rejected chief justice to the court endured dif-
Associated Press “We are in an era of ex- As she lays out in “Supreme was partly a victim of his ficult confirmations. Justice
WASHINGTON (AP) — Won- treme partisan energy right Court Confirmation Hear- own design. He was among Clarence Thomas faced
dering when Supreme now,” said University of ings and Constitutional the drafters who insisted questions about former col-
Court nominations be- Georgia law professor Lori Change,” the book she Congress should have a league Anita Hill’s claims
came so politically conten- Ringhand. “In such a mo- co-wrote, Ringhand said, role in the Supreme Court that he sexually harassed
tious? Only about 222 years ment, the partisanship will “There were more rejected appointment process, her. Justice Felix Frankfurt-
ago — when the Senate manifest itself across gov- nominees in the first half of rather than leave it solely er’s loyalty to the United
voted down George Wash- ernment, and there’s no the nation’s history than in to the president, historian States was questioned be-
ington’s choice for chief reason to think the nomina- the second half. That con- Henry Abraham wrote in cause of his birth in Austria,
justice. tion process will be exempt troversy has been partisan his history of high court ap- his Judaism and his affilia-
This year’s brouhaha sees from that. It hasn’t been in in many cases, back to pointments, “Justices, Presi- tion with the American Civil
Senate Democrats and the past,” George Washington.” dents, and Senators.” Liberties Union. But Ameri-
Republicans bracing for a Each side has accused the “Confirmations have been Rutledge was not the last to can politicians don’t tend
showdown over President other of unprecedented episodically controversial,” get close to the lifetime ap- to look back so far. Demo-
Donald Trump’s nominee, obstruction. Republicans said Ringhand, who is the pointment to the court only crats fixate on 1968, the last
Neil Gorsuch. It’s the latest wouldn’t even hold a hear- Georgia law school’s as- to see it yanked away. The year of the Johnson admin-
twist in the political wran- ing for Merrick Garland, sociate dean. “The level most recent were Garland istration, when Republicans
gling that has surrounded President Barack Obama’s of controversy has ebbed and former White House and southern Democrats
the high court vacancy al- nominee. Democrats are and flowed.” counsel Harriet Miers, came together to filibuster
most from the moment Jus- threatening a filibuster, John Rutledge, a South whose nomination by Presi- the nomination of Abe For-
tice Antonin Scalia died in which takes 60 votes to Carolinian who was a dent George W. Bush was tas to be chief justice.q