In this week’s Confirmation Tales post, I provide the answers to last week’s judicial-confirmation trivia questions, along with some related information that I think you will find of interest. Alas, as I feared might happen, one of the answers I initially gave was wrong. (I was hoping that any misconceptions I had would be cleared up by answers that readers sent me before I posted my answers.)
Here’s one question and answer:
Who was the most recent Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president to have a Democratic senator vote no on his/her confirmation?
Elena Kagan.
One of the 37 negative votes against Barack Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan in 2010 was cast by Democratic senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
Back in 1967, 10 of the 11 votes against LBJ’s nomination of Thurgood Marshall (for whom Kagan would clerk) were cast by Democratic senators from southern states. In 1968, when the cloture vote on LBJ’s nomination of Abe Fortas to be chief justice failed, 19 of the 66 Democrats voted against cloture and another 12 managed to avoid voting.
I will resume Confirmation Tales narratives next week as I take up one of the most consequential episodes in judicial-confirmation history, one that I’ve discovered is little known to law students these days. So please sign up for Confirmation Tales.