WASHINGTON – Historians who try to define President George H. W. Bush’s legacy would do better than to judge him by his choices for the Supreme…
WASHINGTON – Historians who try to define President George H. W. Bush’s legacy would do better than to judge him by his choices for the Supreme Court.
In the middle two years of his single term in office, Bush chose one of the most liberal judges ever nominated by a Republican president, then one of the most conservative.
It wasn’t long after his nomination of David Souter, who came without much of a paper trail, that the conservative legal movement had a new slogan: «No More Souters.» Less than two years into his two decades on the court, Souter played an instrumental role in preserving abortion rights nationwide. He went on to establish a lengthy liberal record.
But by then, Bush – who died Friday night at 94 – had come full circle and nominated Clarence Thomas as the nation’s second African-American associate justice. Thomas was a mere 43 years old and, over 27 years and counting, has become the anchor of the court’s conservative wing following Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016.
While some experts have characterized Bush’s two nominations as a wash, C. Boyden Gray, who was White House counsel throughout Bush’s presidency, disagrees.
“Thomas exceeded our expectations by a much wider margin than Souter may have disappointed them,» Gray says. “I can’t count how many times in my presence I heard (Bush) say he was very proud of that nomination – very, very proud.”
By most accounts, Bush wasn’t looking for such an odd couple, or to balance a liberal judge with a conservative. He was choosing nominees with whom he was comfortable.
