5-4 case after 5-4 case,” Twitter, June 29, 2018, 4:54 a.m., neeratanden/status/1012665534297624577.
7. Salvador Rizzo, “The thinly sourced theories about Trump’s loans and Justice Kennedy’s son,” Washington Post, July 12, 2018, washingtonpost/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/07/12/untangling-the-links-between-trump-deutsche-bank-and-justice-kennedys-son/; Katie Akin, “Did Justice Kennedy quit due to family ties to Trump and Russia?” Politifact, July 10, 2018, politifact/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jul/10/blog-posting/did-justice-kennedy-quit-due-family-ties-trump-and/.
8. Ian Millhiser, “Justice Kennedy deserves this nasty, unflinching sendoff,” ThinkProgress, thinkprogress/kennedy-was-a-bad-justice-76e464024d78/.
9. Chris Matthews, “Justice Kennedy Announces Retirement From Supreme Court,” MSNBC Live with Katy Tur, MSNBC, June 27, 2018, archive/details/MSNBCW_20180627_180000_MSNBC_Live_With_Katy_Tur/start/2106/end/2166.
10. Mitch McConnell, “Senator McConnell on Justice Kennedy Retirement and Replacement,” C-SPAN, video file, June 28, 2018, c-span/video/?447582-3/senator-mcconnell-justice-kennedy-retirement-replacement.
11. “SCOTUS Agrees with Kavanaugh,” Senate RPC, July 24, 2018, rpc.senate.gov/policy-papers/scotus-agrees-with-kavanaugh.
12. Jan Crawford Greenburg, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court (New York: Penguin, 2007), 61.
13. Jeffrey Toobin, “Holding Court,” New Yorker, March 19, 2012, newyorker/magazine/2012/03/26/holding-court.
14. Dan Burns, “Online bettors see Kavanaugh as likely U.S. Supreme Court nominee,” Reuters, June 27, 2018, reuters/article/us-usa-court-kennedy-bets/online-bettors-see-kavanaugh-as-likely-u-s-supreme-court-nominee-idUSKBN1JN350.
15. Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman, “Trump Interviews 4 Supreme Court Prospects in Rush to Name Replacement,” New York Times, July 2, 2018, nytimes/2018/07/02/us/politics/trump-supreme-court-nomination.html.
16. Michael D. Shear and Thomas Kaplan, “Court Vacancy in Election Year Jolts the Parties,” New York Times, June 29, 2018.
17. Ruth Graham, “Amy Coney Barrett Is Allegedly a Member of a Religious Group That’s Been Called a ‘Cult,’ ” Slate, July 3, 2018, slate/human-interest/2018/07/amy-coney-barretts-alleged-religious-group-people-of-praise-what-is-it.html.
18. JCN, “Judicial Crisis Network Launches #AnotherGreatJustice, a Seven-Figure Ad-Buy on Supreme Court Vacancy,” Judicial Crisis Network, June 27, 2018, judicialnetwork/in-the-news/judicial-crisis-network-launches-anothergreatjustice-a-seven-figure-ad-buy-on-supreme-court-vacancy/.
19. Edith Roberts, “Potential nominee profile: Brett Kavanaugh,” SCOTUSblog, June 28, 2018, scotusblog/2018/06/potential-nominee-profile-brett-kavanaugh/.
20. Christopher Jacobs, “How Potential SCOTUS Pick Brett Kavanaugh Wrote a Roadmap For Saving Obamacare,” The Federalist, July 2, 2018, thefederalist/2018/07/02/potential-scotus-pick-brett-kavanaugh-wrote-roadmap-saving-obamacare/.
21. David French, “Brett Kavanaugh Is an Excellent Judge, but Is He the Best Choice?,” National Review, July 5, 2018, nationalreview/2018/07/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-potential-pick/.
22. Sarah E. Pitlyk, “Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Impeccable Record of Constitutional Conservatism,” National Review, July 3, 2018, nationalreview/2018/07/judge-brett-kavanaughs-impeccable-record-of-constitutional-conservatism/.
23. Ed Whelan, “Contra Ben Shapiro on Judge Kavanaugh,” National Review, June 28, 2018, nationalreview/bench-memos/contra-ben-shapiro-on-judge-kavanaugh/.
24. Ben Shapiro, “THE RUN-DOWN: Here’s What You Need To Know About Trump’s Top 5 Possible Nominees,” The Daily Wire, June 27, 2018, dailywire/news/32411/run-down-heres-what-you-need-know-about-trumps-top-ben-shapiro.
25. Richard Wolf, “Basketball, Popeyes, 2 Live Crew: The year Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh clerked for Anthony Kennedy,” USA Today, August 30, 2018, usatoday/story/news/politics/2018/08/30/brett-kavanaugh-neil-gorsuch-learned-supreme-court-ropes-together/1050836002/.
26. Benny Johnson, “Movement Conservatives Fume at Trump SCOTUS Favorite: ‘This is the Low-Energy Jeb Bush Pick,’ ” Daily Caller, July 3, 2018, dailycaller/2018/07/03/conservatives-trump-supreme-court-brett-kavanaugh/.
27. Such requests for feedback have a lengthy history. George Washington reportedly kept correspondence from people proposing themselves or others to the Supreme Court in a drawer in his New York office. When visitors would arrive, he’d spread out the letters on the top of his desk and solicit their thoughts. John Anthony Maltese, The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 24.
28. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin, “McConnell Prods Trump On Nominee To the Court,” New York Times, July 8, 2018, A16.
29. Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman, “President Has the Perfect Template for His Second Nominee: His First. Order Reprints,” New York Times, July 6, 2018, A15.
30. Philip Elliott, “Inside Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Deliberations,” Time, July 8, 2018, time/5332628/inside-donald-trumps-supreme-court-deliberations/.
31. 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, New American Bible (Revised Edition).
Chapter Two: The List
1. His speech took place four months, nine days before the November 3, 1992, election and six months, twenty-six days before Bush left office. “Biden in 1992: President Should Not Name Supreme Court Nominee Until After The November Election,” RealClearPolitics, February 22, 2016, realclearpolitics/video/2016/02/22/biden_in_1992_bush_should_not_name_a_nominee_until_after_the_november_election.html.
2. “Private: Text of Senator Schumer’s Speech,” American Constitution Society, ACSblog, July 27, 2007, acslaw/acsblog/text-of-senator-schumers-speech/.
3. Burgess Everett and Glenn Thrush, “McConnell throws down the gauntlet: No Scalia replacement under Obama,” Politico, February 13, 2016, politico/story/2016/02/mitch-mcconnell-antonin-scalia-supreme-court-nomination-219248.
4. Ted Barrett, Manu Raju, and Laurie Ure, “Kirk blasts GOP leaders for inaction on Supreme Court nominee,” CNN, March 29, 2016, cnn/2016/03/29/politics/merrick-garland-supreme-court-republican-meeting/index.html.
5. Manu Raju, “In reversal, GOP senator says he does not favor hearings for Garland,” CNN, April 1, 2016, cnn/2016/04/01/politics/jerry-moran-merrick-garland-supreme-court-obama/index.html.
6. Mike DeBonis, “GOP senator ‘more convinced than ever’ that Garland should get hearing,” Washington Post, April 5, 2016, washingtonpost/news/powerpost/wp/2016/04/05/gop-senator-more-convinced-than-ever-that-garland-should-get-hearing/.
7. Burgess Everett, “Flake says it might be Garland time,” Politico, October 20, 2016, politico/story/2016/10/jeff-flake-merrick-garland-vote-supreme-court-230109.
8. “Grassley Statement on Justice Scalia,” Chuck Grassley Senate website, News Releases, February 13, 2016, grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-statement-justice-scalia.
9. Jennifer Steinhauer and David M. Herszenhorn, “Charles Grassley Faces Formidable Challenger in Iowa Senate Race,” New York Times, March 3, 2016, nytimes/2016/03/04/us/politics/charles-grassley-patty-judge-iowa-senate-race.html.
10. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and David M. Herszenhorn, “White House Is Said to Be Vetting Iowa Judge for Supreme Court Seat,” New York Times, March 2, 2016, nytimes/2016/03/03/us/politics/white-house-vetting-jane-kelly-judge-supreme-court.html.
11. Federal judges