As Easter Sunday approaches and many vacations are underway, I’ll take a respite from the usual Confirmation Tales narratives and pose some more judicial-confirmation trivia questions. (For those eager to play catch-up, here are the questions and answers from my first round. I also presented these Court-related Labor Day trivia questions and answers.)
1. Which federal judicial nominee received the highest number of negative votes from senators of the same party as the president who nominated him/her?
2. Which federal judicial nominee received the second highest number of negative votes from senators of the same party as the president who nominated him/her?
3. Who was the most recent Supreme Court nominee of a Democratic president to have a Democratic senator vote no on his/her confirmation?
4. Who is the most recent Supreme Court justice to have been the third nominee to fill his/her seat?
5. Who is the second most recent Supreme Court justice to have been the third nominee to fill his/her seat?
6. Which currently sitting justice was nominated to fill a seat that had been occupied by which other currently sitting justice?
7. Who is the most recent Supreme Court nominee to be confirmed on a voice vote?
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If you have some good judicial-confirmation trivia questions, please send them to me at ewhelan@eppc.org.
1. Clement Haynsworth
2. Harold Carswell (not sure of the order. I just remember reading "The Brethren" years ago and how Harry Blackmun was Nixon's third choice for the seat)
3. Thurgood Marshall (this was a guess. Biden had one pick, Obama two, Clinton two. I think all 5 got unanimous Democratic support which pushes things all the way back to LBJ. I don't believe Fortas ever got a confirmation vote for Chief Justice. Marshall seems like the logical choice).
4. Anthony Kennedy (after the failed Bork nomination and the withdrawal of Douglas Ginsburg for smoking pot as a law professor or some such transgression)
5. Probably Harry Blackmun (see 1 and 2 above)
6. John Roberts was first nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Samuel Alito now holds that seat.
7. Antonin Scalia was confirmed 98-0 but that's not a voice vote. I am guessing Byron White, but that's just a guess.
1. No idea!
2. No idea! But I would suspect it was that one Obama nominee who was a solid conservative.
3. Elena Kagan
4. Anthony Kennedy
5. Harry Blackmun
6. Elena Kagan was unsuccessfully nominated to the D.C. Circuit seat that John Roberts later occupied
7. Sandra Day'O'Connor (?)