The appointment of a Supreme Court Justice is an event of major
significance in American politics. Each appointment is important
because of the enormous judicial power the Supreme Court exercises
as the highest appellate court in the federal judiciary.
Appointments are usually infrequent, as a vacancy on the nine
member Court may occur only once or twice, or never at all, during
a particular President's years in office. Under the Constitution,
Justices on the Supreme Court receive lifetime appointments. Such
job security in the government has been conferred solely on judges
and, by constitutional design, helps insure the Court's
independence from the President and Congress. The procedure for
appointing a Justice is provided for by the Constitution in only a
few words. The "Appointments Clause" (Article II, Section 2, clause
2) states that the President "shall nominate, and by and with the
Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the
supreme Court." The process of appointing Justices has undergone
changes over two centuries, but its most basic feature -- the
sharing of power between the President and Senate -- has remained
unchanged: To receive lifetime appointment to the Court, a
candidate must first be nominated by the President and then
confirmed by the Senate. Although not mentioned in the
Constitution, an important role is played midway in the process
(after the President selects, but before the Senate considers) by
the Senate Judiciary Committee. On rare occasions, Presidents also
have made Court appointments without the Senate's consent, when the
Senate was in recess. Such "recess appointments," however, were
temporary, with their terms expiring at the end of the Senate's
next session. The last recess appointments to the Court, made in
the 1950s, were controversial because they bypassed the Senate and
its "advice and consent" role. The appointment of a Justice might
or might not proceed smoothly. From the first appointments in 1789,
the Senate has confirmed 122 out of 158 Court nominations. Of the
36 unsuccessful nominations, 11 were rejected in Senate roll-call
votes, while nearly all of the rest, in the face of committee or
Senate opposition to the nominee or the President, were withdrawn
by the President or were postponed, tabled, or never voted on by
the Senate. Over more than two centuries, a recurring theme in the
Supreme Court appointment process has been the assumed need for
excellence in a nominee. However, politics also has played an
important role in Supreme Court appointments. The political nature
of the appointment process becomes especially apparent when a
President submits a nominee with controversial views, there are
sharp partisan or ideological differences between the President and
the Senate, or the outcome of important constitutional issues
before the Court is seen to be at stake.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
