“On February 15, 1932, when a third vacancy occurred (on the Supreme Court. ed.), I nominated Chief Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo of the New York Court of Appeals, a Democrat. The appointment met with Senate approval.” The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, Volume 2: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933.

“CARDOZO IS NAMED TO SUPREME COURT; NOMINATION HAILED Hoover Sends Appointment to Senate and Confirmation at Once is Expected. GEOGRAPHY IS IGNORED, President Selects Third New Yorker for the Bench After Conference With Borah. REGARDED AS A “LIBERAL” Nation-Wide Support Was Based on Belief That the Judge’s Views Resembled Those of (Oliver Wendell) Holmes. The New York Times February 16, 1932

William Borah, who at the time was one of the most powerful Senate Committee Chairmen, strongly supported Cardozo's nomination. He helped to convince President Hoover to make the nomination, according to Henry Abraham in his book, Justices, Presidents, and Senators. Abraham says when Hoover showed Borah the list of possible candidates to replace Oliver Wendell Holmes, Cardozo was on the bottom of the list with the notation “Jew, Democrat, New York.” Borah told him he was handed the list upside down and convinced Hoover to appoint Cardozo, according to Abraham.

Later that same February day, the New York times reported that, “After (Cardozo) was told that the nomination had (already) gone to the Senate, he said ‘It is a great honor, and I appreciate it, but I really would not care to comment’”

According to the February 27, 1932 New York Times column, “The Week in America, “Benjamin N. Cardozo was confirmed (February 24th) by the Senate in ten seconds to be Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.”

Cardozo was the second Jewish Supreme Court Justice. The first was Louis Brandeis, appointed by Woodrow Wilson, in 1916. But Brandeis was not the first Jew nominated to the High Court. Senator Judah Benjamin of Louisiana was nominated to the Court in 1853 by Millard Fillmore and again in 1854 by Franklin Pierce. Both times he declined. Benjamin resigned from the Senate in 1861, when Louisiana seceded from the Union. Often described as the “brains of the Confederacy,” Benjamin was appointed to be the first Attorney General of the Confederacy on February 25, 1861. He went on to become the Confederacy’s Secretary of War and Secretary of State.