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57 Alb. L. Rev. 1111 (1993-1994)
Unfulfilled Aspirations: The Court-Packing Efforts of Presidents Reagan and Bush

handle is hein.journals/albany57 and id is 1125 raw text is: UNFULFILLED ASPIRATIONS: THE COURT- PACKING EFFORTS OF PRESIDENTS REAGAN AND BUSH Christopher E. Smith* and Thomas R. Hensley** I. INTRODUCTION During 1993, the American public was reminded yet again of the perceived link between the Supreme Court's composition and its de- cisions affecting law and public policy. Before selecting Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg' to replace Justice Byron White,2 President Clinton considered the probable impact of various potential nominees on fu- ture Supreme Court decisions concerning abortion and other contro- versial issues.3 There was nothing unusual about the attention paid by Clinton, as well as by senators4 and interest groups,5 to Ginsburg's probable impact on the Rehnquist Court's decision mak- * Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Akron. A.B., 1980, Harvard University; M.Sc., 1981, University of Bristol (England); J.D., 1984, University of Tennessee; Ph.D., 1988, University of Connecticut. ** Professor of Political Science, Kent State University. B.A., 1965, Simpson College; M.A., 1967; Ph.D., 1970, University of Iowa. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions to this Article made by data drawn from the United States Supreme Court Judicial Database, Harold J. Spaeth, principal investigator and available through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR Study Number 9422). A version of this work was presented at the 1993 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. 1 Richard L. Berke, Clinton Names Ruth Ginsburg, Advocate for Women, to Court, N.Y. TIMES, June 15, 1993, at Al. 2 Linda Greenhouse, White Announces He'll Step Down From High Court, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 20, 1993, at Al. 3 In announcing his selection of Ginsburg, Clinton did not state any specific expectations about how she would decide abortion or other particular issues. However, his remarks made clear that he had expectations about how she would decide cases affecting women: It is important to me that Judge Ginsburg came to her views and attitudes by doing, not merely by reading and studying.... Having experienced discrimination, she devoted the next 20 years of her career to fighting it and making this country a better place for our wives, our mothers, our sisters and our daughters. Transcript of President's Announcement and Judge Ginsburg's Remarks, N.Y. TIMES, June 15, 1993, at A24. 4 During the confirmation hearings, senators sought to learn Ginsburg's views on abortion, capital punishment, and other issues. Ginsburg was the first nominee to strongly endorse the right of choice for abortion. Neil A. Lewis, Ginsburg Affirms Right of a Woman to Have Abortion, N.Y. TIMr.s, July 22, 1993, at Al. However, she declined to discuss her views on capital punishment and other issues. See Neil A. Lewis, Ginsburg Deflects Pressure to Talk on Death Penalty, N.Y. TimEs, July 23, 1993, at Al. 1111

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