John Fund recently wrote a column on seven Republican appointed SCOTUS judges who disappointed once in office. They were Justices Warren, Brennan, Blackmun, Stevens, Souter, Oâ??Connor, and Kennedy.
Jim Lindgren, makes an important observation on The Volokh Conspiracy,
“since the Stevens nomination, the only two Republican-appointed Justices who stayed fully true to form were Scalia and Thomas. Consider how these two differed from the other Republican appointments over that period (Stevens, Oâ??Connor, Kennedy, and Souter). Scalia and Thomas were movement conservatives who before their nomination were publicly attacked for their views. Before appointment, they had taken public positions that were perhaps broadly popular with the general public, but unpopular with educated elites and the press. Scalia and Thomas had sharpened and defended their ideas against attack.
By contrast, before their nominations Justices Stevens, Oâ??Connor, Kennedy, and Souter had not faced much public criticism for their judicial and legal ideologies. Their conservative ideologies were not as well formed, if they existed at all. Thus, they â??grew in office.â? In her conservative background before appointment, Miers is much more like Oâ??Connor, Kennedy, and Souter (and Blackmun from an earlier era) than like Scalia and Thomas.
That has to be considered a strike against Harriet Miers. And so does this. This pick is a disaster for the second term. I think she her confirmation is in serious doubt.