This could be a shot across the bow so to speak, at the reception and difficulties that a nominee for a future vacancy will go through.
Think about it. Will some future nominees actually decline a Supreme Court nomination, because of the gauntlet that nominee will be put through?
I tend to doubt it. Bork and Thomas were just brutal and everyone saw them. And people still queue up for the spots. Those jobs are the ultimate fantasy of every judge. I think most federal judges that wind up making those candidate lists would endure almost anything for the chance to be a Supreme.
This has been part of the game plan of the left for a long time. I remember the unfair grilling that Condaleeza Rice got from Dems. They have just ratcheted it up under PDJT. It takes great courage to accept any position that requires Senate confirmation these days. The Resistance is evil and bullying is their tactic.
That shot was fired 31 years ago at Bork....then Thomas
Alexander Hamilton turned down Washington’s nomination to the Court. And was the expert on the Constitution.
He needed money too much after impoverishing himself in government service to take the position. Had he not been in the government he would have been a wealthy man appropriate for the best lawyer in the country.
John Marshall said his first approach to a case was to see what the Federalist Papers said about the subject. Hamilton wrote almost 2/3s of them.