Saint Louis University School of Law Scholarship Commons All Faculty Scholarship 2011 Choosing Justices: How Presidents Decide Joel K. Goldstein Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/faculty Part of the Courts Commons, President/Executive Department Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons No. 2011-09 Choosing Justices: How Presidents Decide Forthcoming in Stetson Law Review Joel K. Goldstein Saint Louis University School of Law Choosing Justices: How Presidents Decide Joel K. Goldstein ∗ Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law Saint Louis University School of Law 314 ‐977 ‐2782
[email protected] ∗ Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law. An earlier version of this paper was presented as part of a panel discussion on selection of federal judges at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools annual meeting on August 7, 2009. I benefited from the discussion by my fellow panelists Bill Marshall and Ron Rotunda and by those in attendance. I am grateful to Mark Killenbeck and Brad Snyder for very helpful comments on a more recent draft and to Stacy Osmond for research assistance. i Choosing Justices: How Presidents Decide ABSTRACT Presidents play the critical role in determining who will serve as justices on the Supreme Court and their decisions inevitably influence constitutional doctrine and judicial behavior long after their terms have ended. Notwithstanding the impact of these selections, scholars have focused relatively little attention on how presidents decide who to nominate. This article contributes to the literature in the area by advancing three arguments. First, it adopts an intermediate course between the works which tend to treat the subject historically without identifying recurring patterns and those which try to reduce the process to empirical formulas which inevitably obscure considerations shaping decision.