Unsuccessful nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Established by Article III of the Constitution, the detailed structure of the court was laid down by the 1st United States Congress in 1789. Congress specified the Court's original and appellate jurisdiction, created 13 judicial districts, and fixed the initial size of the Supreme Court. The number of justices on the Supreme Court changed six times before settling at the present total of nine in 1869. As of June 2022, a total of 116 justices have served on the Supreme Court since 1789. Justices have life tenure, and so they serve until they die in office, resign or retire, or are impeached and removed from office.

Justices are nominated by the President of the United States and then must be confirmed by the United States Senate, before being officially appointed. A nomination to the Court is considered to be official when the Senate receives a signed nomination letter from the president naming the nominee, which is then entered in the Senate's record. There have been 37 unsuccessful nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States. Of these, 11 nominees were rejected in Senate roll-call votes, 11 were withdrawn by the president, and 15 lapsed at the end of a session of Congress. Six of these unsuccessful nominees were subsequently nominated and confirmed to seats on the Court. Additionally, although confirmed, seven nominees declined office and one died before assuming office.

18th century

George Washington

Among the six original nominees to the Supreme Court, George Washington nominated Robert H. Harrison, who declined to serve. The seat remained empty until the confirmation of James Iredell in 1790.

Washington nominated William Paterson for the Supreme Court on February 27, 1793. The nomination was withdrawn by the President the following day. Washington had realized that since the law establishing the positions within the Supreme Court had been passed during Paterson's term as a Senator (a post he had resigned in November 1790 after being elected Governor of New Jersey) the nomination was a violation of Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution. Washington re-nominated Paterson to the Court on March 4, 1793, after the expiration of what would have been Paterson's term as Senator had he not resigned, and Paterson was confirmed by the Senate.

John Jay resigned as Chief Justice on June 29, 1795, after being elected Governor of New York. The subsequent nomination of John Rutledge as Chief Justice was rejected by a vote of 10–14 on December 15, 1795. Rutledge's strident and vocal opposition to the Jay Treaty may have been the main reason for his rejection. Because he had been a recess appointment, Rutledge served as Chief Justice for one term. Washington nominated Associate Justice William Cushing to replace him as Chief Justice, but Cushing declined the role. Washington then successfully appointed Oliver Ellsworth to serve as the next Chief Justice.

John Adams After Oliver Ellsworth decided to resign from the position of Chief Justice, President John Adams sought to replace Ellsworth with John Jay, who had been the first Chief Justice. Jay was formally nominated, but turned down the position. Adams then successfully nominated his Secretary of State, John Marshall.

19th century

James Madison When William Cushing died, James Madison nominated Levi Lincoln Sr. on January 2, 1811. Lincoln declined the nomination. Alexander Wolcott was then nominated, but was rejected by a vote of 9–24 on February 13, 1811. After John Quincy Adams declined a nomination, Madison was finally successful in filling the seat with his appointment of Joseph Story.

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams nominated John J. Crittenden on December 18, 1828. The Senate postponed the vote on his confirmation, by a vote of 23–17, on February 12, 1829. The Senate did not explicitly vote to "postpone indefinitely", but the resolution did have that effect. President Andrew Jackson instead filled the position with John McLean.

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson nominated Roger B. Taney on January 15, 1835, to be an Associate Justice. A resolution was passed by a Senate vote of 24–21 on March 3, 1835, to postpone the nomination indefinitely. Jackson nominated Taney again on December 28, 1835. After the political composition of the Senate changed the next year, Taney was confirmed as Chief Justice March 15, 1836.

In 1837, Jackson nominated William Smith and John Catron to newly created seats. Both were confirmed, but Smith declined to serve. Later that year, Jackson's successor Martin Van Buren appointed John McKinley to fill the vacancy.

John Tyler John Tyler experienced extreme difficulty in obtaining approval of his nominees due to his lack of political support in the Senate. Tyler took office in 1841 after the death of Whig President William Henry Harrison. Tyler had been Harrison's running mate in the 1840 election, but Tyler clashed with the Congressional Whigs over issues such as the national bank, and these clashes extended to judicial nominees.

John Canfield Spencer was nominated on January 9, 1844, and his nomination was defeated by a vote of 21–26 on January 31, 1844. Reuben H. Walworth was nominated on March 13, 1844, and a resolution to table the nomination passed on a 27–20 vote on June 15, 1844. The nomination was withdrawn from the Senate on June 17, 1844. Edward King was nominated on June 5, 1844. A resolution to table the nomination passed by a vote of 29–18 on June 15, 1844. No other action was taken on this nomination.

The same day that Walworth's nomination was withdrawn, Spencer was re-submitted, but there is no record of debate and a letter from the President withdrawing the nomination was received on the same day. Walworth was then re-nominated later that same day, but the motion to act on the nomination in the Senate was objected to, and no further action was taken.

Walworth and King were re-nominated on December 10, 1844, but both nominations were tabled on January 21, 1845. Walworth's nomination was withdrawn on February 6, 1845, and King's two days later. John M. Read was nominated on February 8, 1845, and there was a motion to consider the nomination in the Senate on January 21, 1845, but the motion was unsuccessful and no other action was taken. On February 14, 1845, the Senate voted to confirm Samuel Nelson.

James K. Polk After Henry Baldwin's death in 1844, James K. Polk nominated James Buchanan, who declined the nomination. Polk then nominated George W. Woodward, but the Senate rejected him by a vote of 20–29. Baldwin was finally replaced by Robert Cooper Grier in 1846.

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore, the last member of the Whig Party to serve as president, made three nominations to replace John McKinley, nominating Edward A. Bradford, George Edmund Badger, and William C. Micou, but the Senate, controlled by the Democratic Party, did not take action on any of the nominees. Democratic President Franklin Pierce filled the vacancy with John Archibald Campbell.

James Buchanan James Buchanan nominated Jeremiah S. Black to the court in early February 1861 to replace Peter Vivian Daniel. A motion to bring the nomination up for discussion was defeated 25–26 on February 21, 1861. His successor, Abraham Lincoln, filled the seat with Samuel Freeman Miller in 1862.

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson took office after the death of Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Johnson, a former Democrat, had been Lincoln's running mate on the National Union ticket of 1864, but Johnson disagreed with Congressional Republicans on several issues, including judicial nominees.

Two justices died in office during Johnson's administration, James Moore Wayne and John Catron. Johnson had, in April 1866, nominated Henry Stanbery to be an Associate Justice. The following July, however, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act of 1866, which provided for a gradual elimination of seats until only seven were left. Due to the reduction of seats, Stanbery's nomination was nullified. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase had urged for this reduction in the hopes that it would result in an increase of the justices' salaries, which, ironically, did not happen until Congress restored the size of the court to nine members in 1871.

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant nominated Ebenezer R. Hoar to a new seat on the court. The Senate rejected this nomination by a vote of 24–33. Grant successfully nominated Joseph Bradley for the seat.

Grant also nominated Edwin M. Stanton, former Attorney General and Secretary of War to the court. The nomination was eventually confirmed, but Stanton died before he was commissioned.[ Members of the Supreme Court of the United States], Official list on SCOTUS website Grant then successfully nominated William Strong.

Grant nominated George Henry Williams to be Chief Justice of the United States in 1873, but he later withdrew from consideration.Department of Justice biography: George Henry Williams Prior to withdrawal of consideration, the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to recommend confirmation to the entire Senate.Corning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. Grant then nominated Caleb Cushing for Chief Justice on January 9, 1874, but despite Cushing's great learning and eminence at the bar, his anti-war record and the feeling of distrust experienced by many members of the U.S. Senate on account of his inconsistency, aroused such vigorous opposition that his nomination was withdrawn on January 13, 1874. Grant was successful with his third nomination of Morrison Waite.

Rutherford B. Hayes Early in 1881, President Rutherford B. Hayes nominated Thomas Stanley Matthews for the position of Associate Justice. Matthews was a controversial nominee due to his close ties to the railroad industry, and as the nomination came near the end of Hayes's term, the Senate did not act on it. However, upon succeeding Hayes, incoming President James A. Garfield (who, like Hayes, was a Republican) renominated Matthews, and the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 24 to 23, the narrowest confirmation for a successful U.S. Supreme Court nominee in history. He served on the Court until his death in 1889.Stanley Matthews biography at Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals.

Chester A. Arthur In 1882, Chester A. Arthur nominated Roscoe Conkling to serve as an Associate Justice after Ward Hunt resigned. Conkling was confirmed, and then declined the position.

After Conkling declined, Arthur nominated George F. Edmunds, who twice declined to serve. Arthur then nominated Samuel Blatchford, who was confirmed and accepted.

Grover Cleveland Associate Justice Samuel Blatchford died in 1893, during the second term of Grover Cleveland. This seat was traditionally held by a New Yorker. Cleveland's first two nominees were not confirmed by the Senate; the nomination of William Hornblower was rejected by the Senate by a vote of 24–30 on January 15, 1894. Cleveland's follow-up nominee Wheeler Hazard Peckham was also rejected by the Senate, 32–41, on February 16, 1894.

By the tradition of Senatorial courtesy, other Senators generally deferred to a nominee's home state senators when evaluating a presidential nomination. The Senators from New York were Edward Murphy Jr. and David B. Hill; Hill objected to Cleveland's nominations, and most other Senators supported Hill. Hill was a rival of Cleveland's who had lost the Democratic nomination for President to him in 1892.

Cleveland finally overcame Hill's opposition by nominating Edward Douglass White of Louisiana. White was a sitting Senator, and Senatorial courtesy dictated that the Senate not reject one of its own. White's nomination was approved; he served as an Associate Justice until 1910, and as Chief Justice until his death in 1921.

20th century

Warren Harding