The 5 most disastrous Supreme Court nominees

http://theweek.com/article/index/202858/the-5-most-disastrous-supreme-court-nominees

3. The racist rookie

Who: G. Harrold Carswell, nominated by Richard Nixon in 1970

Why was he a disaster? The Senate rejected Nixon's choice primarily on the grounds of inexperience — but Carswell's record of "vigorous belief in the priniciples of White Supremacy" certainly didn't help. Attempting to marshall a defense for the nominee, GOP Senator Roman Hruska tried to put a positive spin on Carswell's self-evident shortcomings: "There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers," he said. "They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they?"

What happened next: Carswell's career ended in scandal. After an unsuccessful attempt to enter politics, he was arrested and convicted of battery in 1976 for making advances on an undercover cop in a Florida men's room.

Bork was pretty disastrous too. His "ideas" were old in the 18th century. Thank God he isn't on the court.

Don't remember who was doing the toons back then (nostamj-rest his soul, or n2doc) but that was some much needed humor during that contentious Myers nomination. And, it summed up the logic behind the pick in a way that no one could argue against.

The five traitors who ended america back in 2000.


How any of the others could be worse is beyond me.

He was the Roberts of the 1850s...wrote the Dred Scott decision that all but assured the Civil War and thousands of American dead. I'd say that's a tad worse than the current corporate cronies. At least so far.

I think the Civil War was on its way anyway, but Chief Justice Taney almost assured that it would be coming very, very soon. And four years later, it did.

so it was not all Taney. Oxford Companion to SCOTUS writes "when the American Bar Association asked professors of law, history, and political science to evaluate Supreme Court Justices, they ranked Taney in the 'great' category along with giants John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Louis D. Brandeis."

Dred Scott is longest opinion in US Supreme Court History, Nine opinions written by nine justices (And all of this written in 1857, 12 years before the invention of the typewriter in 1869). Two Justices also signed onto Taney's opinion and thus it is viewed as the "Opinion" of the court (yes THREE out of NINE justices makes this the "Opinion" of the Court). Dred Scott was a mess then, considered a mess today, and we should be thankful for the post civil war Constitutional Amendments that ended up making it all moot.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0060_0393_ZS.html

He ended up dieing broke for Lincoln and THE GOP in Congress hated his Civil War Activities (i.e. ruling only Congress could suspend Habeas Corpus, NOT the President) while they could defend themselves by attacking him to Dred Scott.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney

One of the dissenting Justices in Dred Scoot (Benjamin Robbins Curtis, who was and is considered the only intellectual equal to Taney on that court) said this of Justice Taney:

He was indeed a great magistrate, and a man of singular purity of life and character. That there should have been one mistake in a judicial career so long, so exalted, and so useful is only proof of the imperfection of our nature. The reputation of Chief Justice Taney can afford to have anything known that he ever did and still leave a great fund of honor and praise to illustrate his name. If he had never done anything else that was high, heroic, and important, his noble vindication of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the dignity and authority of his office, against a rash minister of state, who, in the pride of a fancied executive power, came near to the commission of a great crime, will command the admiration and gratitude of every lover of constitutional liberty, so long as our institutions shall endure.

For more on Justice Curtis, the first Justice who had a law degree AND the first Justice to resign over principal. Curtis resigned over Dred Scott AND the low pay Justices received at that time period. Curtis's pay as a Justice was $8000 a year, after Curtis resigned he earned $650,000 a year. Taney decided to stay Chief Justice at $10,000 a year even as inflation doubled costs during the Civil War (Thus Taney was flat broke when he died):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Robbins_Curtis

K & R

Which is, precisely, where he belongs.

you all seem to forget that most of the time he was on the bench it was said he was befuddled by powerful drugs. And nothing was found out or said til after he passed away. The republicans get away with a lot of crap. Just like Reagan not being able to govern at the end of his first term and most of the second because of Alzheimer's.

The dipshit GOPhers justified her stupidity by saying she represents "real Americans", or in other words the mediocrity of our society deserves representation as well.

:rofl:

Three times and no seat? Ouch.