The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees

John Anthony Maltese sets out to explain how the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominees has arrived at its present point-and he succeeds admirably by interweaving historical and contemporary materials. He demonstrates precisely when and how interest groups became involved in the process and when and how the White House became actively involved in, as he puts it, 'selling' the nominees. I know of no other work that more thoroughly mines the presidential papers and other archival materials, and effectively integrates contemporary scholarship. -- Sheldon Goldman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In this paperback edition, he includes a discussion of the recent nomination of Stephen Breyer, addressing various reform proposals made by critics of the current process and crediting President Clinton's protracted selection process with restoring some decorum to the proceedings.Politics has always been at the heart of the Supreme Court selection process. According to John Anthony Maltese, the first "Borking" of a nominee came in 1795 with the defeat of John Rutledge's nomination as chief justice. What is different about today's appointment process, he argues, is not its politicization but the range of players involved and the political techniques that they use. In The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees, Maltese traces the evolution of the contentious and controversial confirmation process awaiting today's nominees to the nation's highest court. In this paperback edition, he includes a discussion of the recent nomination of Stephen Breyer, addressing various reform proposals made by critics of the current process and crediting President Clinton's protracted selection process with restoring some decorum to the proceedings.