Bench Memos

Law & the Courts

58-42!

That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post, which begins:

On January 31, 2006, the Senate confirmed George W. Bush’s nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court by a vote of 58 to 42. That vote was the exact converse of the vote that defeated Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork in October 1987.

It’s worth pondering what happened in the intervening two decades to account for the shift.

Please sign up for Confirmation Tales.

Ed Whelan holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is a regular contributor to National Review’s Bench Memos blog.
Exit mobile version