"I was curious how many sitting Supreme Court justices had both been nominated by presidents who..."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted

I was curious how many sitting Supreme Court justices had both been nominated by presidents who'd lost the popular vote and confirmed by senators representing less than half of the country. So I looked into it.

Link to tweet

Politics • Analysis

The minoritarian third of the Supreme Court

By Philip Bump
National correspondent
Yesterday at 12:04 p.m. EST

The Supreme Court seems likely to significantly scale back access to abortion when it rules on a Mississippi law that sharply limits the procedure — if the court doesn’t overturn Roe v. Wade entirely. That’s a function of the court’s shift to the right following the confirmation of its three most recently added justices, the three added by President Donald Trump during his term in office.

The three, it turns out, nominated by a president who lost the popular vote and confirmed by senators representing less of the country’s population and who had received fewer cumulative votes than those who opposed the nominations.

This is a body that’s unusually intertwined with the institutions most likely to disproportionately award power to political minorities: the electoral college and the Senate. Trump’s election in 2016 was a function of his narrow victory margins in three states that gave him an electoral vote majority despite losing the popular vote. The Senate similarly rewards less populous, more rural — and more Republican — states with disproportionate power. Combined, we get a situation like the current court.

There are nine sitting justices, four of whom were confirmed by large majorities in the Senate. Another four — Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — received fewer than 55 votes for confirmation.



Only those latter three, though, were nominated by a president who didn’t win the popular vote. Stephen G. Breyer was nominated by Bill Clinton in 1994, after Clinton won only 43 percent of the popular vote, but that was a function of the strong third-party candidacy of Ross Perot. Even Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. were appointed by a president who won the popular vote: George W. Bush, after Bush won his reelection bid in 2004.

{snip}

By Philip Bump
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Twitter https://twitter.com/pbump

[Botany]

1. SCOTUS judges who really shouldn't be there 5 were nominated by Presidents who lost the popular vote

Justice Thomas: Anita Hill wasn't the only accuser of Clarence Thomas for sexual harassment. 3 other women
none of whom knew each other all had similar stories like Ms. Hill's. None of them were called.

Chief Justice Roberts: See Florida 2000

Justice Alito: See Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 and see Creative Response Concepts totally staged Ms. Alito's
running from hearing room in tears because the Democrats were being too mean to her husband.

Justice Gorsuch: See Mitch McConnell's blocking of even having hearings for Merrick Garland after the death
Justice Scalia

Justice Kavanaugh: See perjury during his hearings. See the non investigation by the FBI into his background.

Justice Comey Barrett: See Trump and McConnell's installing her during a Presidential Election

5 of those Justices were installed with massive help from the right wing dark money group Judicial Crisis Network.
J.C.N was also the money and much of the media manipulation behind the blocking of Merrick Garland.

When the SCOTUS strikes down Roe v Wade we will have one more example of the minority controlling the majority
and the pushing of Chaos Theory by the right.

[jimfields33]

2. Unfortunately the constitution was explicit on what was required for a Supreme Court

Nominee. I think the days of 99 senators voting for a Supreme Court justice like RBG received are long over. I’m sure they will be mostly from majority party from here on out.

[Botany]

3. bush v Gore changed it all ... Sandra Day O'Connor knew she was rat fucking America w/that decision.

And tried to temper it by saying that decision could not be used in arguing and past or future cases.

The republican party in its current form locally, statewide, and nationally has become a cancer on America
and they know they will be and ever diminishing % of the voters so they have been working 24/7 to pack
the courts with right wingers in order to keep some power.

[Polybius]

4. The days of 65-45 are even gone

I would be shocked if any Justice ever gets even 5 votes from the opposition Party.