Did Anthony Kennedy ever sniff glue? And other stories of nominations past
Last week, after Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, Donald Trump declared, “Outside of war and peace, of course, the most important decision you make is the selection of a Supreme Court judge.” As we await Trump’s announcement on Monday of this most important decision, let’s take a gander at the history of nominations past.
1. In 1990, when George H.W. Bush was casting about to replace retired Supreme Court justice William Brennan, the consensus candidate in the White House was Ken Starr.
2. Starr got nixed by Dick Thornburgh, who was Bush’s Attorney General. Thornburgh thought Starr was too much of a squish, not sufficiently hard-right, especially about presidential power.
3. Today, Thornburgh is one of Trump’s most prominent conservative critics, claiming that Trump poses a radical threat to the rule of law and Republican values.
4. Bush settled on David Souter as his nominee.
5. Three years earlier, the Reagan White House had briefly considered Souter after Robert Bork’s nomination went down in flames.
6. Souter was scotched when Reagan’s people discovered he had joined a New Hampshire Supreme Court decision declaring that gay men and women had a constitutional right to run day-care centers.
7. Reagan settled on Anthony Kennedy instead.
8. Kennedy was considered safe. He offered the Reaganites reassuring answers to literally hundreds of questions about his personal life.
9. Among other questions, Kennedy was asked:
Did he have sex in junior high?
If he had sex in college, where did he do it?
Had he ever had sex with another man?
Did he ever have kinky sex?
Had he ever had herpes?
Did he sniff glue?
10. This is how constitutional law gets made. Before the norms eroded.