QUESTIONS:
1. With the presidential election year fast approaching, increasing attention is being focused on prospective appointments by the President to the Supreme Court. When was the last time an appointment to the Supreme Court was made in a presidential election year?
2. Should Chief Justice William Rehnquist retire and the President appoint an associate justice of the Supreme Court to succeed him, a fresh vacancy on the bench would simultaneously be created. When was the last time this happened?
3. When was the last time the Senate thwarted a President who tried to promote an associate justice to the chief justice position and then attempted to fill the resulting vacancy?
4. Which present Supreme Court justice has served the longest?
5. Although several presidential nominees to the Supreme Court have been rejected by the Senate, which justice who was confirmed had the most votes in the Senate cast against him?
ANSWERS:
1. 1968, President Johnson nominated Associate Justice Abe Fortes to be chief justice and named Judge Homer Thorn berry to fill the vacancy that the Fortas nomination would create.
2. 1986, when President Reagan appointed Associate Justice William Rehnquist chief justice and AppealsCourt Judge Antonin Scalia to succeed Rehnquist.
3. 1968, when President Johnson nominated Fortas to be chief justice andThornberry to succeed Fortas as an associate justice. (The Senate filibustered the Fortas nomination so long that he finally asked the President to withdraw his name.)
4. Rehnquist, who became an associate justice in 1971 and chief justice in ’86.
5. Clarence Thomas, confirmed by the Senate on a 52-to-48 vote in 1991.
