Seen to Be Done

1 February 2020

I present this table

Justices of the US Supreme Court in November of 1952
Justiceappointed
by
prior
affiliation
birthseated
Hugo Lafayette BlackRoosevelt (D)Democrat27 Feb 188618 Aug 1937
Stanley Forman ReedRoosevelt (D)Democrat31 Dec 188427 Jan 1938
Felix FrankfurterRoosevelt (D)Democrat15 Nov 188220 Jan 1939
William Orville DouglasRoosevelt (D)Democrat16 Oct 188617 Apr 1939
Robert Houghwout JacksonRoosevelt (D)Democrat13 Feb 189211 Jul 1941
Harold Hitz BurtonTruman (D)Republican22 Jun 188822 Sep 1945
Frederick Moore VinsonTruman (D)Democrat22 Jan 189021 Jun 1946
Thomas Campbell ClarkTruman (D)Democrat23 Sept 188919 Aug 1949
Sherman MintonTruman (D)Democrat20 Oct 18905 Oct 1949

in advance of polemic that I anticipate over the next five or more years.

The Presidential candidates who might plausibly receive the nomination of the Democratic Party are such that, in the absence of a financial crisis, President Trump is very likely to be reëlected. He has, so far, been able to select two appointees to the US Supreme Court.

Four of the nine Justices now serving are appointees of Democratic Presidents. One of these, Justice Ginsburg, will be 87 years old in March, and has had repeated bouts with cancer. Another, Breyer, will be 82 years old in August; it is very likely that he will leave the Court before 2024. A third, Sotomayor, is in her mid-sixties, but suffers from type 1 diabetes. Whoever is elected to the Presidency in 2020 will surely replace between one and three of these Justices. There may be only one Justice from the Democratic Party in 2024.

Which is why I point to the Court in 1952. It had no Justices other than those appointed by Democratic Presidents, and only one Justice who, prior to appointment, had not been affiliated with the Democratic Party. The Republican Party won the Presidency and a majority in each chamber of Congress. But, if there were any argument that it would be right and proper to increase the number of Justices on the US Supreme Court in order to reëstablish a majority of Republican appointees or somesuch, that argument sank without a trace.

Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.