In my new Confirmation Tales post, I explore why Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s age of 60 in 1993 didn’t sink her candidacy for the Supreme Court. A big part of the answer is that there were very few Democratic federal appellate appointees who were younger than her—and there were none at the prime age of 50. My concluding paragraph:
Developing Supreme Court candidates is a long-term process that often links same-party presidents over time. Donald Trump was able to appoint Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2017 and 2018, respectively, because George W. Bush won re-election in 2005 and appointed them to their federal appellate seats. Conversely and ironically, Ruth Bader Ginsburg might well owe her Supreme Court appointment in 1993 to the fact that Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush held the presidency for the twelve years between Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
I invite you to sign up for Confirmation Tales. If you have any interest in the topic of Supreme Court confirmations, I assure you that you won’t want to miss my next couple of posts.