Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush IIRevised to include the last eight years of Supreme Court decisions and nominations, this updated classic is the most comprehensive and accessible history of the first 110 members of the U.S. Supreme Court ever written. Henry J. Abraham, one of the nation's preeminent scholars of the judicial branch, addresses the vital questions of why individual justices were nominated to the highest court, how their nominations were received by legislators of the day, whether the appointees ultimately lived up to the expectations of the American public, and the legacy of their jurisprudence on the development of American law and society. Abraham's insights into the history of the Supreme Court are unrivaled by other studies of the subject, and among his numerous observations is that fully one-fifth of its members were viewed as failures by the presidents who appointed them. Enhanced by photographs of every justice from 1789 to 2007, Abraham's eloquent writing and meticulous research guarantee that this book will interest both general readers and scholars. |
Contents
The Nixon | 9 |
Why They Get There | 39 |
The First Forty Years | 57 |
Copyright | |
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Abe Fortas Adams American appointment Associate Justice attorney Black Blackmun Brandeis Brennan Breyer Burger Bush candidate Cardozo Charles Evans Hughes Chief Justice choice Circuit Civil colleagues confirmed Congress conservative constitutional Court of Appeals decision Democrat dissent Douglas Eisenhower federal Federalist Felix Frankfurter Fortas Ginsburg Harlan high bench Holmes Hughes Hugo Black Jackson James Jefferson John Marshall John Marshall Harlan Johnson Judge judicial experience Judiciary Committee jurisprudential jurist Kennedy lawyer legislative liberal Lincoln majority McKinley McReynolds Nixon nomination O'Connor opinions party political Powell president presidential qualified Reagan record Rehnquist Republican resigned Robert role Roosevelt Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rutledge Sandra Day O'Connor Scalia seat selection served Souter Supreme Court Justice Taft Taney term Thomas Thurgood Marshall tice tion Truman U.S. Court U.S. Senate U.S. Supreme Court United University Press vacancy Virginia vote Warren Washington Whig White House William Wilson York