During his only term in office,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

appointed three members of the Supreme Court of the United States: Chief Justice

Charles Evans Hughes Charles Evans Hughes Sr. (April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948) was an American statesman, politician and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was the ...

, and

Associate Justices Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...

Owen Roberts Owen Josephus Roberts (May 2, 1875 – May 17, 1955) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1930 to 1945. He also led two Roberts Commissions, the first of which investigated the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the sec ...

and

Benjamin Cardozo Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's th ...

. Additionally, with his failed nomination of

John J. Parker John Johnston Parker (November 20, 1885 – March 17, 1958) was an American politician and United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was an unsuccessful nominee for associate justice of the Unite ...

, Hoover became the first president since

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

to have a Supreme Court nomination rejected by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

Charles Evans Hughes nomination

Chief Justice

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

retired on February 3, 1930, and the same day Hoover nominated former Associate Justice

to fill the vacancy. Hughes was confirmed by the

on February 13, 1930 by a vote of 52—26.Supreme Court Nominations, 1789-present
''senate.gov''. Hughes had served as Governor of New York, law professor at Cornell, and an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He ran for President in 1916 and was Secretary of State from 1921 to 1925. Hughes' nomination was opposed by progressives and Southern Democrats, and also due to his age. At 67, Hughes was the oldest man ever nominated as Chief Justice. He survived the contentious confirmation process, accepted by a vote of 52 to 26. For all of its eleven years, the

Hughes Court The Hughes Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1930 to 1941, when Charles Evans Hughes served as Chief Justice of the United States. Hughes succeeded William Howard Taft as Chief Justice after the latter's retirement, an ...

had to wrestle with the economic problems of the Great Depression. Hughes was prolific, producing 283 opinions during his tenure. He was considered a judicial activist with regard to civil liberties. On economic issues he generally supported limits on the regulatory powers of the federal government and states (judicial activism) until 1937, and accepted federal legislation (judicial restraint) from then on.

John J. Parker/Owen Roberts nomination

Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...

Edward T. Sanford died on March 8, 1930. On March 21, 1930, Hoover nominated

to fill the vacancy. Parker’s nomination came under fire from organized labor and the NAACP, and was rejected by the

on May 7, 1930 by a vote of 39—41. Hoover moved quickly to name a replacement and nominated Philadelphia attorney

on May 9, 1930. Roberts garnered widespread support due to his role in prosecuting the

Teapot Dome scandal The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyomi ...

, and he was confirmed by the Senate on May 20, 1930 by a

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

Benjamin Cardozo nomination

In 1932, Justice Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes retired from the Court. Hoover was immediately pressured on a number of fronts to appoint highly esteemed New York judge

Benjamin N. Cardozo Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (May 24, 1870 – July 9, 1938) was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the New York Court of Appeals from 1914 to 1932 and as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1932 until his deat ...

to the vacancy. Support came from the entire faculty of the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...

, as well as the deans of the law schools at Harvard,

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, and Columbia. Justice Harlan F. Stone also strongly urged Hoover to name Cardozo, even offering to resign to make room for him if Hoover had his heart set on someone else (Stone had in fact suggested to Calvin Coolidge that he should nominate Cardozo rather than himself back in 1925). Hoover, however, originally demurred: there were already two justices from New York, and a Jew on the court; in addition, Justice

James Clark McReynolds James Clark McReynolds (February 3, 1862 – August 24, 1946) was an American lawyer and judge from Tennessee who served as United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Unite ...

was a notorious anti-Semite. When the chairman of the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid p ...

William E. Borah William Edgar Borah (June 29, 1865 – January 19, 1940) was an outspoken Republican United States Senator, one of the best-known figures in Idaho's history. A progressive who served from 1907 until his death in 1940, Borah is often con ...

of Idaho, added his strong support for Cardozo, however, Hoover finally bowed to the pressure, and nominated Cardozo on February 15, 1932. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said of Cardozo’s appointment that "seldom, if ever, in the history of the Court has an appointment been so universally commended." Democrat Cardozo’s appointment by a Republican president has been referred to as one of the few Supreme Court appointments in history not motivated by partisanship or politics, but strictly based on the nominee’s contribution to law. However, Hoover was running for re-election, eventually against

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, so a larger political calculation may have been operating. Cardozo was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate on February 24, 1932. On a radio broadcast on March 1, 1932, the day of Cardozo’s confirmation, Clarence C. Dill, Democratic Senator for Washington, called Hoover’s appointment of Cardozo "the finest act of his career as President".(''New York Times'', March 2, 1932, p. 13)

Names mentioned

Following is a list of individuals who were mentioned in various news accounts and books as having been considered by Hoover for a Supreme Court appointment:

United States Supreme Court (elevation to Chief Justice)

Harlan Fiske Stone Harlan is a given name and a surname which may refer to: Surname * Bob Harlan (born 1936 Robert E. Harlan), American football executive *Bruce Harlan (1926–1959), American Olympic diver *Byron B. Harlan (1886–1949), American politician * Byron ...

(1872-1946)

United States Courts of Appeals

US Court of Appeals and District Court map

Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maryla ...

(1885-1958) (Nominated and Rejected) * Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ** Samuel Hale Sibley (1873-1958)Nemacheck, Christine L.; ''Strategic Selection: Presidential Nomination of Supreme Court Justices from Herbert Hoover Through George W. Bush'', pp. 147-148 *

Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Distr ...

** William S. Kenyon (1869-1933) * Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit **

Orie Leon Phillips Orie Leon Phillips (November 20, 1885 – November 14, 1974) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for ...

(1885-1974) *

Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

Duncan Lawrence Groner Duncan Lawrence Groner (September 6, 1873 – July 17, 1957) was an Associate Justice and later Chief Justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Education and career Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Groner attended th ...

(1873-1957)

United States District Courts

* William P. James (1870-1940), Judge;

United States District Court for the Southern District of California The United States District Court for the Southern District of California (in case citations, S.D. Cal.) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appe ...

* Walter C. Lindley (1880-1958), Judge;

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois (in case citations, E.D. Ill.) is a former federal district court for the state of Illinois. The court was established on March 3, 1905, by 33 Stat. 992. The Northern and South ...

State Supreme Courts

* Howard L. Bickley (1871-1947) – Judge,

New Mexico Supreme Court The New Mexico Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is established and its powers defined by Article VI of the New Mexico Constitution. It is primarily an appellate court which reviews civil and criminal decisio ...

(1870–1938) – Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals (Nominated and Confirmed) * Fred Tarbell Field (1876-1950) – Associate Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

United States Senators

(1865-1940) – United States Senator from Idaho

Other backgrounds

* Newton D. Baker (1871-1937) – Member of

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that aris ...

; former Mayor of Cleveland and

United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

* James Rudolph Garfield (1865–1950) — former

United States Secretary of the Interior The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natur ...

(1862–1948) — Judge,

World Court The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

; former

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

under Coolidge and Harding; former

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is any member of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1 ...

(Nominated and Confirmed) * Owen J. Roberts (1875–1955) — Private attorney (Nominated and Confirmed) * Silas H. Strawn (1866-1946) – President,

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

; partner in

Winston & Strawn Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm. Headquartered in Chicago, it has nearly 800 attorneys in ten offices in the United States and six offices in Europe and Asia. Founded in 1853, it is one of the largest and oldest law firms in Chic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoover, Herbert, Supreme Court Candidates United States Supreme Court candidates by president Supreme Court candidates