A fundamental respect in which the Senate confirmation process for Supreme Court justices has changed over the past 35 years or so is that it has shifted decisively from a model of deference to the president to a model of assessing nominees based on judicial philosophy. Under the deference model, senators ask only whether the nominee has the supposed “objective qualifications”—some suitable mix of experience, ability, and character—to serve on the Supreme Court, and they vote for a nominee of an opposite-party president who has those qualifications. Under the judicial-philosophy model, the nominee’s (stated or perceived) judicial philosophy is the critical factor—or at least a critical factor—in how senators vote.
There are some reasonable arguments that can be made on behalf of the deference model. For what it’s worth, I strongly favor the judicial-philosophy model, in part because I find it very strange to exclude from the concept of “objective qualifications” the elementary matter of how a nominee approaches the task of interpreting the Constitution and federal statutes, in part because I think that it promotes greater accountability on the part of senators.
But for present purposes I will simply observe that the deference model is long dead and has no chance of being revived so long as the political bases of both parties remain so sharply divided on grounds of judicial philosophy. Joe Biden himself voted against the nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito (as well as of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas) and even supported the effort to filibuster the Alito nomination.
I therefore find it baffling that some conservatives—including folks I like and admire—have urged Senate Republicans to vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination on the basis (as one group letter* puts it) of “her breadth of experience, demonstrated ability, and personal attributes of intellect and character” and to set aside their “disagree[ments] with many of Judge Jackson’s legal views.”
Some of these supporters of Jackson might imagine that they can somehow wish a deference model back into existence. But they don’t even acknowledge that they are calling on Senate Republicans to abandon the judicial-philosophy standard that has long prevailed.
* For what it’s worth, the group letter, title aside, does not purport that all of its signatories are conservatives. The title of the letter asserts that it is a “letter from conservatives,” but the text more guardedly states that it is from “lawyers and others who have served in appointed positions in Republican administrations or hold conservative political or legal views” (emphasis added). So that explains how its signatories can include, say, Christine Todd Whitman and Connie Morella.