Chief Justice Richard Nixon?

In a book I have recently been reading "Being Nixon", it quickly mentions that Nixon at one point confided in his fiancee Ola Florence Welch that he aspired to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court someday. Has anyone ever heard any more detail regarding Nixon's initial aspiration?

What do you think Nixon in the Supreme Court (or the Nixon Court even) would have been like taking into account it would likely take him down a road where he is barely in elected politics. Who might have appointed him?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
What do you think Nixon in the Supreme Court (or the Nixon Court even) would have been like taking into account it would likely take him down a road where he is barely in elected politics.

I suspect that he would have been a moderate Justice in the mold of Lewis Powell.

Who might have appointed him?

A more liberal Republican U.S. President? Indeed, what about Nelson Rockefeller if he wins in 1960?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
do you think he would be able to make a name for himself that early?
Yes--if he becomes Ike's VP but refuses to run for President (instead making it clear that he wants to be on the U.S. Supreme Court), then maybe he'd get appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court if the GOP keeps the U.S. Presidency in 1960.
 
Nixon let personal bias override law and duty as president. What do you think would happen on the bench? And he is not going to be a moderate. He may swing based on some things he believed, but he is very much a Conservative on all the things we heard on his tapes. He was embarrassed by the EPA, Affirmative Action, and so much that he is given a Liberal blessing for and yet was the work of other Republicans in the administration. Where he may be a swing vote is guns, as we heard from the tapes. And imagine Nixon on the powers of the presidency and the legality of presidential action for goodness sake.
 
I think the Nixon that would become Justice would be much different than '68 Nixon, just as '68 Nixon was nearly unrecognizable from '60 Nixon. The man is an enigma, who disliked personal conflict and went along with the atmosphere of the room on multiple occasions (according to family and coworkers) which makes getting concrete positions from the tapes fairly difficult.
 
I think a probable POD for this is that Nixon's brother Harold either never contracts Tuberculosis or he dies before Nixon graduates high school from it. With his brother not sick, the family would have the finances to send Nixon to Harvard or Yale (Nixon recieved grants/offers from both). Nixon being an alumni from the eastern establishment would definitely aid his chances to the Supreme Court and higher profile positions. Going to Harvard/Yale would also probably open up other law schools to Nixon, and if that happens he likely never meets Pat.
 
Nixon was not physically abusive, although he was cold in front of the public with Pat, including this case where it was obviously over the line if it happened, but all family members adamantly state that they had a loving marriage behind closed doors.

I also fail to see how that has anything to do with the question here?
 
Nixon let personal bias override law and duty as president. What do you think would happen on the bench? And he is not going to be a moderate. He may swing based on some things he believed, but he is very much a Conservative on all the things we heard on his tapes. He was embarrassed by the EPA, Affirmative Action, and so much that he is given a Liberal blessing for and yet was the work of other Republicans in the administration. Where he may be a swing vote is guns, as we heard from the tapes. And imagine Nixon on the powers of the presidency and the legality of presidential action for goodness sake.
Would his view on presidential power be like this on SCOTUS? Or was his expansive view because he was in the role and wanted to have power? I would not be surprised if a Justice Nixon believed in a very narrow view of presidential power...
 
Nixon was not physically abusive, . . .
With people you or I personally know, it's almost always going to be the case that we suspect rather than know as a cold fact.

So, if I had been one of Dick's political allies and I had witnessed the scene in which he said to Pat in front of others "Keep your fucking mouth shut," I might have run the situation past my wife.*

Hopefully, a little casual talk together, and we can figure out the next step. Probably my wife knows that if she reaches out to Pat for purposes of discharging a moral obligation, that's not real likely to work. A subtle difference is thinking there's a reasonable chance you might be able to make a difference. Yes, a seemingly small but important change.

*I'm not actually married.
 
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