Alternatives to Byron White

In addition to Hastie and Freund, Arthur Goldberg was in contention, but state supreme court justices Roger Traynor of California and Walter V. Schaefer of Illinois were also given some small consideration. I'm not aware of where Schaefer was philosophically but presumably he was acceptable enough to the White House - the negative point was supposedly that he was a Catholic who had converted. (This was a time when such religious considerations mattered politically) Traynor was viewed as too liberal, and certainly looks like he would have been substantially more liberal than White.

Ultimately though, White was the clear frontrunner and won out largely on the familiarity of the Kennedys with him, and the fact he was part of the administration, so had a lot of backers. So anyone qualified who they were familiar with and part of the administration in an ATL would likely have received strong consideration. Archibald Cox received minor consideration, as well as future AG - under Ford! - Edward Levi. Law Professor Soia Mentschikoff would be one of the first female names to crop up for Supreme Court consideration, but was never seriously considered.
 
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Why was White nominated despite being socially conservative? Was Kennedy unaware of his socially conservative views?
 
Why was White nominated despite being socially conservative? Was Kennedy unaware of his socially conservative views?

White didn't like abortion, but he supported desegregation and was a mixed bag on death penalty cases.

1961 was before the sexual revolution and today's culture war issues had yet to appear on the radar.
 
Why was White nominated despite being socially conservative? Was Kennedy unaware of his socially conservative views?

As strange as it may seem, philosophy or views were hardly taken into account in the selection. What was important was White being highly-regarded in the administration, and his being highly qualified. I think it's worth bearing in mind that it was entirely another era in terms of appointments. It wasn't like today, where nominees views on all issues are rigorously sourced, serious terms on the bench are favoured to prove bona fides on the issues, and they're vetted by interest groups and justice departments sometimes years in advance.

Appointments were done much less systematically than that, and consequently justices ended up taking positions which were often at variance to the president that nominated them. That would continue for a long time after Kennedy, too; look at Reagan appointing O'Connor - where the main 'vetting' in terms of her position on abortion was asking if she had a personal objection to it.
 
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