Two-Fer ─ Electing a President and a Supreme Court

THE HUGE YET INVISIBLE ISSUE IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

When presidents name justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, they may be making significant decisions in terms of the lasting and direct impact on the American people and their freedoms. Yet although for those reasons the appointment of Supreme Court justices and other federal judges should be a central factor in choosing a president, judicial selection usually plays an invisible role in presidential campaigns. In this book, Clint Bolick sheds lights on why every American has a vital and direct interest in the appointment and confirmation of federal judges—which raises greatly the stakes in electing those individuals who have the power and responsibility to appoint and confirm them.

Looking at Supreme Court decisions of the past two hundred years as well as current decisions on the most contentious issues of the day, Bolick explains why judicial nominations are more ideologically driven than ever before and why recent presidents have proved more successful than their predecessors in appointing judges who reflect their judicial philosophies. Two-Fer clearly shows why the shaping of the judiciary is often the most important decision a president will make—and why her or his nominations will have tangible consequences for generations to come.

Clint Bolick is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and serves as the director of the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Litigation in Phoenix.