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To: Impy; Kaslin; fieldmarshaldj; BillyBoy

The exception that proved the rule iwas Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler, a Democrat from Minnesota appointed by President Harding; Butler was one of the best SCOTUS Justices in history, certainly the greatest in the 75 years between John Marshall Harlan’s retiremeny and Antonin Scalia’s appointment.


9 posted on 02/02/2015 6:17:41 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll defend your rights?)
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To: AuH2ORepublican; Impy; Kaslin; fieldmarshaldj
>> The exception that proved the rule was Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler, a Democrat from Minnesota appointed by President Harding; Butler was one of the best SCOTUS Justices in history, certainly the greatest in the 75 years between John Marshall Harlan’s retiremeny and Antonin Scalia’s appointment. <<

Butler's not the only exception to the rule. There were a couple of other Democrats appointed to the SCOTUS who turned out to be solid conservatives (and I'm not even counting center-right appointees like Byron White).

One of the strangest to me was justice James Clark McReynolds. He was not only a lifelong RAT, but ALSO a Woodrow Wilson appointee and had already served as Attorney General under Wilson, so one would assume he was a freakin' socialist "progressive" RAT. Instead, he turned out to be one of the staunchest conservatives on the court and was part of the "Four Horsemen" (along with the aforementioned Pierce Butler) who consistently struck down FDR's New Deal programs as unconstitutional. (the other two justices, George Sutherland and Willis Van Devanter, were both conservative Republicans and had been appointed by conservative GOP Presidents -- Taft and Coolidge)

Another example of a rare "conservative Democrat" nominee from a Republican President was Stephen J. Field, a Lincoln appointee. Field was quite openly a registered Democrat, but he was a pro-union Dem during the civil war so Lincoln probably appointed him as one of the gestures to get the pro-union Dems on his side during his re-election in 1864 (similar to naming Andrew Johnson as veep). Unlike the disastrous Johnson, Field stayed on the court many years and proved to be an excellent supporter of limited government In fact, he was probably more libertarian than conservative. The "Lincoln was a marxist" neo-confederates can stick that in their pipe and smoke it.

Of course, the reverse has sadly happened numerous times -- a conservative Republican president accidentally appointed a backstabbing commie. Coolidge got it wrong too, and the judge he appointed (Harlan F. Stone) ended up becoming an activist liberal judge and was later elevated by FDR to be Chief Justice. I wonder if Stone was the David Souter/John Paul Stevens of his day.

10 posted on 02/02/2015 8:50:49 PM PST by BillyBoy (Impeach Obama? Yes We Can!)
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