DBWI: Thurgood Marshall quits in 1991‏

In his autobiography True Compass, the late Ted Kennedy revealed that Thurgood Marshall came this close to resigning as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1991.

When Kennedy became aware of Marshall's plans, he and two other Senators secretly met with Marshall and convinced him to hold off his resignation until after the November 1992 election. 20 years ago today, Marshall announced his resignation.

As much as lame duck President Bush wanted to nominate his successor, Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell declared that President-elect Clinton would nominate Marshall's successor to the court.

The day after Bill Clinton was inaugurated, he nominated Judge Amalya Kearse to the Supreme Court which was confirmed by the Senate a week later.

With the current 5-4 liberal majority on the court, it is certain that we would have a conservative majority had Marshall chose to resign in 1991 and replaced by a Bush-nominated judge.

If that happened, would Bush's nominee have an easier time getting confirmed by the Senate? And what impact would the rulings of a conservative court have had on this country, especially Citizens United in 2009?
 
I doubt there would be much difference. Bush was a moderate after all. He appointed Souter! So we would still get gay marriage, and the like. Still, the timing could probably be butterflied away by a different justice. If Love hadn't come up early in 2004, Gore may have won reelection without "the activist courts" for McCain to rail against.

What's Citizens United?
 
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