Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="fishtm2001" data-source="post: 5186365" data-attributes="member: 54375">&quot;In truth, presidents had long nominated judges—<a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/biden-supreme-court-breyer-black-woman-qualified-ketanji-brown-jackson.html" target="_blank">and Supreme Court justices in particular</a>—on the basis of demographics. President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Justice William Brennan <a href="https://www.lawweekly.org/col/2018/10/24/ikes-mistake-part-ii-the-nomination-of-william-j-brennan-jr" target="_blank">because he was Catholic</a>, and the White House believed he needed to shore up support among Catholics. The GOP’s revered President Ronald Reagan campaigned on naming the first woman to the Supreme Court; he followed through with Justice Sandra O’Connor, who was openly selected because of her sex. (By today’s standards, O’Connor—a judge on Arizona’s intermediate court of appeals—was underqualified.) Reagan picked Justice Antonin Scalia <a href="https://prospect.org/article/antonin-scalia-affirmative-action-pick./" target="_blank">because he was Italian American</a>. As White House counsel Peter Wallison later <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042302221.html" target="_blank">recalled</a>, Reagan wanted a justice of Italian “extraction,” explaining, “We don’t have an Italian American on the court, so we ought to have one.”Slate</blockquote>

[QUOTE="fishtm2001, post: 5186365, member: 54375"] "In truth, presidents had long nominated judges—[URL='https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/biden-supreme-court-breyer-black-woman-qualified-ketanji-brown-jackson.html']and Supreme Court justices in particular[/URL]—on the basis of demographics. President Dwight Eisenhower nominated Justice William Brennan [URL='https://www.lawweekly.org/col/2018/10/24/ikes-mistake-part-ii-the-nomination-of-william-j-brennan-jr']because he was Catholic[/URL], and the White House believed he needed to shore up support among Catholics. The GOP’s revered President Ronald Reagan campaigned on naming the first woman to the Supreme Court; he followed through with Justice Sandra O’Connor, who was openly selected because of her sex. (By today’s standards, O’Connor—a judge on Arizona’s intermediate court of appeals—was underqualified.) Reagan picked Justice Antonin Scalia [URL='https://prospect.org/article/antonin-scalia-affirmative-action-pick./']because he was Italian American[/URL]. As White House counsel Peter Wallison later [URL='https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042302221.html']recalled[/URL], Reagan wanted a justice of Italian “extraction,” explaining, “We don’t have an Italian American on the court, so we ought to have one.” Slate [/QUOTE]

Verification