Supreme Court Nominations Used to Be Apolitical

David Greenberg: “Sometimes what’s remarkable is what goes unremarked upon. In all the pieces already written about the impending fight to confirm Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s as-yet unpicked successor on the Supreme Court, no one has so much as suggested that anything besides partisanship and ideology will matter. Credentials? Qualifications? Scandal? Racial, ethnic and gender diversity? All of these considerations, so prominent in judicial appointment debates for decades, are largely irrelevant. It’s pure politics now, and no one pretends otherwise.”

“Today’s partisanship culminates an astonishing transformation. It’s hard to recall now, but for most of the last century almost nobody would admit to voting for or against a nominee because of his or her partisan affiliation.”