Unsuccessful Nominations To The Supreme Court of The United States - Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland

In Grover Cleveland's second term, Associate Justice Samuel Blatchford died. This seat was traditionally held by a New Yorker. By the long tradition of Senatorial courtesy, other Senators deferred to the nominee's home state senator when evaluating his nomination. The Senator from New York at the time was David B. Hill, a political rival of Cleveland's. Hill had lost the Democratic nomination for the President to Cleveland in 1892. Cleveland's first two nominees were not confirmed by the Senate. The nomination of William Hornblower from New York was rejected by the Senate by a vote of 24–30 on January 15, 1894. Cleveland's follow-up nominee Wheeler Hazard Peckham, another New Yorker, was also rejected by the Senate, 32–41, on February 16, 1894. Cleveland finally got around Hill by nominating a sitting Senator, Edward Douglass White of Louisiana, to the court. His nomination was approved.