The Makings Of Justice
What does it take to be a great Supreme Court Justice? Longevity? Writing well? Luck of the draw? How about a willingness to resist the winds of politics?
Most of us who follow the Court, or who are Constitutional scholars, are familiar with such names as Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall and William Rehnquist; all noteworthy because of who they are (the first African-American Justice), or for the significant cases decided under his watch as Chief Justice (Brown vs. Board of Education, Bush vs. Gore).
The Court itself derives its powers from Article III of the United States Constitution, and if a Justice retires or resigns for some reason - as Abe Fortas did - a vacancy is created, and the president has constitutional authority to nominate a new Justice, with the advice and consent of the Sentate. In other words, just because a president nominates who he wants to be a Justice, doesn't necessarily mean that he's qualified, or is even deserving of the once in a lifetime opportunity.
It goes without saying that politics play a part in a president's judicial selection. Most of them will select someone who's closely associated with his views on hot-button issues. To what extent he is successful in landing the nominee in a High Seat, depends on who's sitting in the White House, and which members of the Senate are willing to make a point of the politics of ideology, typically by using a tried-and-true tool; the filibuster.
In the early days, the confirmation process was relatively tame. President Franklin Roosevelt nominated Felix Frankfurter to the Court on January 5, 1939; the Senate confirmed him on January 17, 1939. Mr. Roosevelt also nominated William O. Douglas - to this day, the longest serving Justice, at a healthy, phenomenal thirty-six years - on March 20, 1939 and he was confirmed April 4, 1939. Notwithstanding his subsequent Court-packing plan, there wasn't a whole lot of fuss and muss over our longest serving president's nominees.
But does Justice Douglas' long tenure qualify him as one of the greats?
My proposal for what it takes to become a supreme, Supreme Court Justice begins with the ever important judicial confirmation hearing, which is not only an opportunity for 'we the people' to see how the process works, it's the perfect opportunity for the nominee to engage in some truth-telling; namely about how he will decide cases, and how he has decided previous cases of constitutional magnitude.
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