If Eisenhower ran as a Democrat in 1952, who would he nominate to SCOTUS?
How would the court's ideological balance fare over time?
How would the court's ideological balance fare over time?
Conversely, IOTL, Warren and Brennan were Ike's appointees, but my understanding is he didn't much care for their opinions. Not sure what sort of jurisprudence, if any, he was hoping to advance by putting them on the court.
This 1997 Baltimore Sun article is saying that the supposed Eisenhower quote to the effect, I've made two mistakes and they're both on the Supreme Court, well, that quote may not quite be the case.Anecdotes are dangerous to biographers and truth
Mistakes: When essential little stories are distorted, vast damage is done.
Baltimore Sun, September 07, 1997 | Theo Lippman Jr., SPECIAL TO THE SUN
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-09-07/news/1997250003_1_brennan-eisenhower-eisler
' . . . The two Brennan biographies that have appeared since his retirement in 1990 both give credence to the quote. In "A Justice for All" (Simon & Schuster, 1993), Kim Isaac Eisler writes that Eisenhower didn't actually say it in so many words but implied it in a 1957 conversation with retiring Justice Harold Burton.
'Burton kept a diary, and Eisler, who used no footnotes, said in his text that that was his source. But what Burton actually wrote was this: "[Eisenhower] expressed disappointed at the trend of decisions of Chief Justice and Brennan." Hardly the same things as "Two mistakes." . . . '
For political reasons to help with the 1956 electionOTL Eisenhower went with Brennan because he wanted to put a Catholic on the Supreme Court. . .