A Black Right-Wing Alternative for Thurgood Marshall?

Supposing for a moment that Tom Clark didn't decide to assume senior status in 1967 so not providing a seat for Thurgood Marshall, the next opening occurring a few years later in 1969 or 1970. With Nixon in the White House he gets to pick the nominee he's more than likely going to choose someone to the right. Does anyone know if there were any black judges or qualified individuals who were at least centre-right in the scheme of things that would have been viable choices? Thanks.
 
It is tough to avoid Clark retiring because LBJ basically bribed/blackmailed him by offering to make his son Attorney General (which would require Tom to retire).

The problem with finding an African american option for Nixon is that there were so few minority judges from either party (JFK and LBJ together appointed a grand total of 4 to all levels of the courts)

Senator Brooke of Massachusetts is an option though, as he was fairly conservative on criminal law issues
 
Senator Brooke of Massachusetts is an option though, as he was fairly conservative on criminal law issues
The problem is that Brooke was only elected Senator in 1966. Before he was Senator, Brooke was Attorney General of Massachusetts and didn't run for re-election. Perhaps he does. I can see Nixon appointing him thenz
 
Brooke is certainly an interesting idea, thanks. Of course now that I'm reading about him, Time magazines The Brooke Scenario in particular, I'd be half-tempted to keep him in reserve for Nixon to choose him as his Vice Presidential candidate to replace Agnew in 1972. Which would be amusing as it would be the Republicans doing it first and might even be enough to shift enough votes in Massachusetts to turn the election into a fifty-state landslide. :biggrin:

Anyone have any other possible suggestions?
 
IIRC - Brooke couldn't stand Nixon.
Otherwise there is the possibility that Nixon picks Brooke for VP figuring the Southern Democrats would never move to impeach him if it meant Brooke would become president.
 

bguy

Donor
Supposing for a moment that Tom Clark didn't decide to assume senior status in 1967 so not providing a seat for Thurgood Marshall, the next opening occurring a few years later in 1969 or 1970. With Nixon in the White House he gets to pick the nominee he's more than likely going to choose someone to the right. Does anyone know if there were any black judges or qualified individuals who were at least centre-right in the scheme of things that would have been viable choices? Thanks.

Judge William Hastie. The first African-American Article III federal appellate judge. He was considered relatively conservative on everything but civil rights issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Hastie

President Kennedy apparently seriously considered Hastie for the Supreme Court slot that eventually went to Byron White in 1962 but was dissuaded by Chief Justice Warren who thought Hastie was too conservative. Warren said of Hastie, "He’s not a liberal, and he’ll be opposed to all the measures that we are interested in, and he just would be completely unsatisfactory." And Justice Douglas said that Hastie would be “just one more vote for Frankfurter.”

Now Hastie would be getting a little long in the tooth for a Supreme Court slot by 1969 (when he would be 65 years old.) Still, IOTL Nixon nominee Lewis Powell was 64 at the time Nixon sent his nomination up, so if Nixon was otherwise satisfied with Hastie, I don't think his age would be that big a stumbling block.
 
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Otherwise there is the possibility that Nixon picks Brooke for VP figuring the Southern Democrats would never move to impeach him if it meant Brooke would become president.
Well impeachment wouldn't be a consideration, this is for a considered UltimateNixon timeline where feeling more secure in his position, McGovern really was that bad of a candidate, the 'Plumbers' are dispensed with so that there's no Watergate break-in.

Along with telephoning Coretta Scott King and intervening in 1960 when Kennedy gets second thoughts, a term as Governor of California, appointing the first black Justice of the Supreme Court, possibly the first black Vice President, all the Acts and Agencies passed and created in our timeline, successfully concluding US involvement with Vietnam, passing his Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan, and being a big enough bastard to force an earlier Camp David Accords. All that combined with the Oval Office tapes never becoming public so as to not lay out his views on a number of issues sees Nixon retire with his reputation only slightly damaged by the 1970s economic problems and regularly be listed in the top ten of various rankings of US Presidents. :)
 
Congressman William Dawson. One of the three African American congressmen, pre the great society, a social conservative with a lot of credit among the NAACP, Urban League, faction of civil rights.
 
Had Hastie been appointed that could have been interesting as he died of a heart attack in April 1976

Obviously the change in career could change events but that would 1) raise a topic of election year confirmations and 2) potential give Carter a SCOTUS pick and/or swing things to Ford
 
The problem is that Nixon was not interested in "ethnic" seats for the Supreme Court, not even conservatives. Note that he temporarily put an end to the tradition of a "Jewish seat" on the Court after Fortas's resignation, though there were certainly Jewish conservatives available, Henry Friendly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Friendly being an obvious and extremely distinguished, though admittedly elderly, example. He could also have appealed to women or Italian-Americans by appointing one, but chose not to do so. There was *one* constituency that Nixon thought was underrepresented in the Court, and which he strove to see better represented--white Southerners.

In any event, the names mentioned here would be too liberal for Nixon. You have to understand that a lot of Democratic judges (like Hastie) were "too conservative" for a Warren or Douglas without in any way being "conservative" as *Nixon* understood the word!
 
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