Which president submitted the first Supreme Court justice nomination to be filibustered by the Senate?
In June 1968, Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his plans to retire before the end of Lyndon Johnson’s administration, to ensure that Richard Nixon would not be able to appoint Warren’s successor if Nixon won the November election. Johnson nominated Associate Justice Abe Fortas to the position in the hopes that the liberal judge could garner enough votes for a confirmation. However, a filibuster resulted and when the Senate failed to invoke cloture in October, Johnson withdrew the nomination.
The first filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee was by REPUBLICANS stalling to let a conservative Republican President appoint the next Justice. Remind them of this when they sputter and fume in the next couple of years. mjh
[filibuster: From Spanish filibustero, freebooter, from French flibustier, from Dutch vrijbuiter, pirate. from vrijbuit, plunder : vrij, free; see pr- in Indo-European Roots + buit, booty (from Middle Dutch bte, of Middle Low German origin).]