Unsuccessful Nominations To The Supreme Court Of The United States
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are nominated by the President and are then confirmed by the Senate. Presidential administrations are listed with any unsuccessful Supreme Court nominees—that is, individuals who were nominated and who either declined their own nomination, failed the confirmation vote in the Senate, or whose nomination was withdrawn by the president.
As of 2010, 151 people have been nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. Twenty-nine nominations (which includes one promotion) have been unsuccessful on at least the first try. Of those 29:
- 12 were fully considered and formally rejected by the Senate.
- 7 (including a nomination of an Associate Justice for Chief Justice) were withdrawn by the President before a formal consideration could be taken by the Senate.
- One of these nominations was withdrawn because of the Ineligibility Clause, but was confirmed after its applicability was no longer an issue.
- 5 had no action taken on them.
- One of these was because of a change in the Presidency, but the nomination was resubmitted by the incoming President and confirmed.
- 3 had formal votes on the nominations were postponed.
- One of these nominations was reconsidered after a change in Senate composition and confirmed.
- 2 had nominations nullified by other circumstances without being formally considered.
Read more about Unsuccessful Nominations To The Supreme Court Of The United States: George Washington, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Table
Famous quotes containing the words united states, unsuccessful, supreme, court, united and/or states:
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Pan had been amongst them—not the great god Pan, who has been buried these two thousand years, but the little god Pan, who presides over social contretemps and unsuccessful picnics.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Ask a toad what beauty is, the supreme beauty, the to kalon. He will tell you it is his lady toad with her two big round eyes coming out of her little head, her large flat snout, yellow belly, brown back.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“As to “Don Juan,” confess ... that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a Gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis a vis? on a table? and under it?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“On September 16, 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)