Supreme Court Wars: The Democrats Started It! Really, they did.

Today's environment on the Supreme Court is a very partisan one, with people voting for and against nominees based on their decisions rather than qualifications or ethics. Qualifications and ethics used to be the only objections that would win a majority vote in rejecting a nominee. For instance, in 1968, Lyndon Johnson nominated Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice, but was denied because of ethics issues and the potentially disturbing implications for the separation of powers given his close connections to the Johnson White House. Nixon had two consecutive rejections, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell. Nixon had promised a Southern Justice and selected Haynsworth, a Southern Democrat. However, there were concerns over civil rights and allegations that he was anti-labor, but this wasn't enough for the Senate to reject his nomination. A Senate inquiry revealed ethics concerns (which didn't turn out to amount to anything) and he was rejected on a 45-55 vote. Nixon tried again with Florida's Republican G. Harrold Carswell. Although details emerged of Carswell advocating segregation in 1948 and reportedly being very rude to blacks as a judge, he had a 58% reversal rate as a judge and was regarded by a number of Senators as "mediocre". Carswell was rejected as well. His subsequent picks were easily confirmed.

However, everything changed in 1987. Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork, an ultra-conservative federal judge. Democrats threw everything they had at Bork even though he was rated "qualified" by the ABA with 10 out of the 15 members of the panel viewing him as "well qualified".  Senator Ted Kennedy claimed that Judge Bork would have us return to the time when women would have to get back alley abortions and when segregated lunch counters existed. Ultimately, Bork was rejected. Democrats tried again with ideological attacks on Clarence Thomas combined with a claim of sexual harassment, but this time Republicans were able to get a narrow majority to confirm him. Republicans did not initially respond in kind; both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were easily confirmed with less than ten Senators opposing in both cases even though they were known to be liberal.

The ideological sniping continued with Democrats, fighting against the nominations of both John Roberts and Samuel Alito, with the opposition more intense with Alito. Ultimately many Democrats yielded with Roberts and he was voted in 78-22. With Alito, the vote was 58-42. The opposition to Obama's nominees, Sotomayor and Kagan, faced Republican opposition. Sotomayor however made it with a 68-31 vote and Kagan made it with a 63-37 vote.

If Democrats bemoan the "litmus tests" that exist for the Supreme Court, all they need to do to find blame is look in a mirror.