A Republican president with two U.S. Supreme Court nominations under his belt was seeking a second term and had uncertain prospects just weeks before the election. A vacancy on the court unexpectedly arose. Suddenly, political calculations were a major factor as the president weighed contenders for the lifetime appointment.
This was 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was running for re-election against Democrat Adlai Stevenson II. In September of that year, Justice Sherman Minton informed the president of his intention to retire as of Oct. 15 because of health concerns. Eisenhower, seeking to gain support in the Northeast and among Catholic voters, settled on William J. Brennan Jr., a 50-year-old Irish Catholic and lifelong Democrat who served on the New Jersey Supreme Court.
“This was a purely political appointment,” says Ilya Shapiro, the author of a new book, Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court. “Ike said, ‘I need to shore up some support.’”
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