Paul Waldman: Your miserable fact of the day: The last time a Democratic president got to fill the seat of a departing conservative Supreme Court justice was in 1962. (it was Byron White)

Your miserable fact of the day: The last time a Democratic president got to fill the seat of a departing conservative Supreme Court justice was in 1962. (it was Byron White)

Clinton replaced White with Ginsburg, and White would fairly be called conservative by that point

Wonderful system we have here. Top notch. A+, no notes.

Ahh yess, Whizzer White, everyone’s favorite football justice and anti-abortion extremist whose hate for teh gay was only matched by Antonin Scalia and Sam Alito. My old boss Mark Udall once had to walk back a claim that Whizzer White (D-Colo) was his favorite SCOTUS justice.

Of course the problem was that then-Rep. Udall knew little about the Supreme Court and figured a Democrat from his state would automatically be praiseworthy in his US Senate primary versus my high school history teacher who knew better. Oops.

I have a great NFL publications book from '74 w article on White. Johnny (Blood) McNally was his teammate & was part of a group talking about how to go about possibly drafting White (who could take 0 part in any hint of a campaign) for the Dem POTUS nomination if a better candidate didn't come along

To depoliticise the court: draw randomly three justices to handle any case.

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