Supreme democracy : the end of elitism in Supreme Court nominations

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Supreme Court nominations were driven by presidents, senators, and some legal community elites. Many nominations were quick processes with little Senate deliberation, minimal publicity and almost no public involvement. Today, however, confirmation takes 81 days on average - Justice Antonin Scalia's former seat has already taken much longer to fill - and it is typically a media spectacle. How did the Supreme Court nomination process become so public and so nakedly political? What forces led to the current high-stakes status of the process? How could we implement reforms to improve the process? In Supreme Democracy: The End of Elitism in the Supreme Court Nominations, Richard Davis, an eminent scholar of American politics and the courts, traces the history of nominations from the early republic to the present. He examines the component parts of the nomination process one by one: the presidential nomination stage, the confirmation management process, the role of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the increasing involvement over time of interest groups, the news media, and public opinion. The most dramatic development, however, has been the democratization of politics. Davis delves into the constitutional underpinnings of the nomination process and its traditional form before describing a more democratic process that has emerged in the past half century. He details the struggle over image-making between supporters and opponents intended to influence the news media and public opinion. Most importantly, he provides a thorough examination of whether or not increasing democracy always produces better governance, and a better Court. Not only an authoritative analysis of the Supreme Court nomination process from the founding era to the present, Supreme Democracy will be an essential guide to all of the protracted nomination battles yet to come.

• Acknowledgments p. xi
• Introduction p. 1
• The Debate over the Nomination Process p. 2
• A Changing Nomination Process p. 5
• The Democratization of Supreme Court Nominations p. 16
• The Purpose of This Book p. 18
• Constitutional and Early American Political Underpinnings p. 20
• The Framers and Judicial Selection p. 26
• Debates at the Constitutional Convention p. 27
• Judicial Selection in the Constitutional Ratification Process p. 32
• Effects on Process Evolution p. 34
• The Non-Democratic Court p. 36
• The Traditional Process p. 37
• Presidential Selection p. 41
• Senate Confirmation p. 72
• The Role of the Senate Judiciary Committee p. 74
• Democratic Elements p. 78
• The Transition Toward Democracy p. 80
• The Role of Interest Groups p. 81
• The Role of the Media p. 86
• Public Opinion p. 88
• Institutional Democratization p. 89
• Undermining the Presumption of Confirmation p. 100
• Facilitating Democratic Involvement p. 100
• External Player Motivations p. 102
• Presidential Selection p. 104
• The President's Environment p. 105
• Influences on Presidential Selection p. 110
• Handling Pressures p. 121
• Vetting the Candidates p. 122
• Conclusion p. 132
• The Changing Role of the Senate p. 133
• Introduction p. 133
• Senate Deliberation p. 135
• The Judiciary Committee and the Senate p. 137
• The Filibuster p. 144
• Democratic Pressures on the Senate p. 147
• Democracy and the Senate Confirmation Process p. 167
• Presidential Management p. 169
• The Public Campaign for Confirmation p. 170
• The Political Environment p. 172
• Image-Making Strategies p. 178
• Countering Opposition Image-Making p. 186
• Tactics for Image-Making p. 189
• Senators and the Administration p. 200
• The Role of Groups p. 209
• Summary p. 214
• Conclusion p. 216
• What is to be Done? p. 218
• The Future of Nominations p. 226
• Notes p. 229
• Index p. 271