Thursday, May 13, 2010
William Rehnquist, Never a jusge before Supreme Court
Conservatives are trying to make an issue out of Elena Kagan’s lack of judicial experience before she joins the U.S. Supreme Court. Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, for one, has said that having been a judge is a “necessary credential” for nominees to the highest court in the land.
Not all Republican senators feel that way. As Orrin Hatch of Utah said during Kagan’s confirmation hearing for solicitor general in March 2009, “I have long believed that prior judicial experience is not a prerequisite for successful judicial service.”
In fact, about 35% of all justices in the history of the court never served on the bench beforehand.
Of the 40 judges (out of 111) who had no prior judicial background, there are two contemporary chief justices (William Rehnquist and Earl Warren) and many famous members of the court, including Felix Frankfurter, Louis Brandeis and John Marshall.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Note to Media: At Least 38 of 111 Supreme Court Justices Had No Prior Judicial Experience (Media Matters for America)
GOP: Judicial Experience Matters, Unless It Doesn't (by Mike Madden, Salon)
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