Something that hit me tonight: As of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement at the end of this month, I will have followed the nominations of every sitting justice.
The first Supreme Court confirmation vote that I paid attention to was that of Justice Clarence Thomas in Oct 1991. I asked if we could keep the TV on during dinner so that I could watch. I was in 9th grade.
In the high school years that followed, President Bill Clinton was elected and I watched his nominations of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
I made it all the way through college, worked two years at a newspaper, went to law school, and started at a law firm before there was another vacancy.
The other thing I realized tonight is that, when the vacancy left by Kennedy’s retirement is filled, two-thirds of the Supreme Court will have taken their seat on the high court since I became a lawyer. (As in, wow, I am getting older!)
Those last 6 seats have included 9 nominations:
O’Connor —> Roberts (withdrawn)
Rehnquist —> Roberts
O’Connor —> Miers (withdrawn)
O’Connor —> Alito
Souter —> Sotomayor
Stevens —> Kagan
Scalia —> Garland (not acted upon)
Scalia —> Gorsuch
Kennedy —> Kavanaugh
O’Connor —> Roberts (withdrawn)
Rehnquist —> Roberts
O’Connor —> Miers (withdrawn)
O’Connor —> Alito
Souter —> Sotomayor
Stevens —> Kagan
Scalia —> Garland (not acted upon)
Scalia —> Gorsuch
Kennedy —> Kavanaugh
In any event, the courts are really important, what the Supreme Court does is really important and history in the making, and if you had told 9th-grade me what my job would be today he would have fallen out of his chair at the dinner table with excitement and disbelief.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who encouraged my obsessions when I was a student in Ohio, everyone who puts up with my obsessions now, & everyone in between. I’m honored and humbled on days like today that I get to do this work. I just try to do my best. Night, again!
