That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post. Here’s how I frame my inquiry:

You might think that being on a state supreme court—the highest judicial authority on what a state’s constitution and laws mean—might be the next best thing to being on the U.S. Supreme Court. But that’s not at all how many state supreme court justices have viewed the matter….
In the decades since Clinton became president, 44 sitting state supreme court justices have leaped to the lower federal courts—27 to federal courts of appeals, 17 to federal district courts. Over this same time span, only one federal judge has accepted an appointment to a state supreme court.
What explains this disparity?

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