If she ’s confirmed , Solicitor General Elena Kagan would become the 4th woman to posture on the Supreme Court . If not , at least she ’ll pull in a smirch on a succeeding version of this tilt — candidates who were almost appointed to the high court in the solid ground .
1. Dallin H. Oaks
After suffering a debilitating stroke , William O. Douglas reluctantly retire from the Supreme Court in 1975 . Douglas , who was in billet for 36 twelvemonth , was set to outlast Gerald Ford ’s presidential condition after Ford had unsuccessfully attempted to accuse Douglas while serving as House Minority Leader five old age before . While Ford select Seventh Circuit jurist John Paul Stevens to replace Douglas , he considered several other candidates , including Brigham Young University president Dallin H. Oaks .
Six years later , while serving as a Utah Supreme Court Justice , Oaks was a prospect for the Supreme Court void that Sandra Day O’Connor eventually filled . In 1984 , Oaks retired from the Utah Supreme Court to pursue a higher calling and was ordained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints . Today , Oaks is the fifth most fourth-year apostle among the ranks of the LDS church .
2. Robert H. Bork
Ronald Reagan elevated William Rehnquist to Chief Justice following Warren Burger ’s retreat in 1986 and considered two judges — Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia — to fill the Associate Justice vacancy created by Rehnquist ’s furtherance . While Reagan take the young Scalia this time , he would nominate Bork to fill the vacancy left by Lewis Powell , who withdraw one yr by and by . Democrats had threatened to put up a fight if Reagan nominated a conservative to supersede the moderate Powell and Bork , a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia , was an gentle quarry . He had close ties to Richard Nixon , having fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox at Nixon ’s request while serving as United States Solicitor General in 1973 . Shortly after Bork was nominated , Sen. Ted Kennedy condemned him during a across the nation televised manner of speaking . " Bork ’s unbending ideology will tip the scales of DoJ against the kind of country America is and ought to be,“ Kennedy said . While many Democrats would admit that Kennedy ’s criticism of Bork was over the top , the damage had been done . The Senate turn down Bork ’s confirmation , 58 - 42 .
After Bork was decline , Reagan planned to nominate Douglas Ginsburg , but Ginsburg retire his name from consideration after it was revealed that he had fume marijuana with his students while he was a professor at Harvard Law School . Reagan in the end pick out Ninth Circuit judge Anthony Kennedy .
3. Edith H. Jones
After a stroke led William Brennan to herald his retirement in 1990 , George H.W. Bush moved quickly to constitute a replacement . John Sununu , the White House boss of staff , aid Bush narrow a list of about a dozen candidates down to two : First Circuit justice David Souter and Fifth Circuit evaluator Edith H. Jones . Less than a week after the intelligence broke that Brennan was stepping down , Bush nominated Souter . " read between the line of business , and that ’s all it is , perhaps we ’re talk about a sequence here,“ Sununu said of Jones after the decision was announced . " perhaps she is the alternative the next sentence we have a vacancy on the Court . There are no certain things , and times and condition can change , but the President was impressed . “ Jones , who was later on considered for a Supreme Court vacuum by George W. Bush , is currently the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit .
4. Emilio M. Garza
Like William O. Douglas , liberal Thurgood Marshall , the first African - American to serve on the Supreme Court , had no architectural plan of leaving the bench while a conservative was in position . But Marshall was becoming progressively ominous and announced his retirement in 1991 , two years before he died of a warmness failure , while George H.W. Bush was in the White House . A routine of candidate were reportedly considered for the vacancy , admit Solicitor General Kenneth Starr , Clarence Thomas , and Garza , who was a recently appoint Fifth Circuit judge . Due to concerns over Garza ’s rawness — he had only been on the Fifth Circuit for a few weeks — and a desire to replace Marshall with a black conservative , Bush chose Thomas .
5. Mario Cuomo
Byron White , who was an All - American running back at Colorado before attending Yale and being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1962 , retire from position in 1993 . Bill Clinton want to tender the position to New York Governor Mario Cuomo , the only person he cite as a likely replacement during his 1992 campaign . While he ab initio seemed opened to the idea , Cuomo afterward sent a missive to Clinton indicate that he was not concerned in the position . " I do not know whether you might indeed have appoint me , but because there has been public speculation concerning the possibility , I think I owe it to you to make clear now that I do not wish to be considered,“ Cuomo wrote . After Cuomo refuse , Clinton considered several other candidates , including Sen. George J. Mitchell and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt , before ultimately name Columbia jurisprudence prof and evaluator for the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
6. Richard Arnold
Harry Blackmun announced his retreat in 1994 and Clinton was inclined to offer the nomination to Mitchell , who had turned down the fling the previous class to remain in the Senate . Clinton also considered Eighth Circuit judge Richard S. Arnold , a fellow Arkansas native , but he had reservations about Arnold ’s health . Arnold had been name with low - grad non - Hodgkin ’s lymphoma nearly 20 years to begin with . Clinton eventually prefer First Circuit judge Stephen Breyer , who had interview with Clinton for the vacancy left by White in 1993 , but fail to print , perhaps as a result of the pain he was in after being hit by a car while cycle a few days in the first place . Arnold give out from an infection related to his treatment in 2004 .
7. Edith Brown Clement
When Sandra Day O’Connor herald her plans to hit the sack in 2005 , it left George W. Bush with his first opportunity after more than four years in office to appoint a member of the Supreme Court . First Lady Laura Bush suggested that a cleaning woman should replace O’Connor and two female judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals — Edith Brown Clement and Edith Jones ( see # 3)—were reportedly among the leading candidates . Clement shortly emerged as the rumour pick , but after ABC News published a story on its website that Clement was not Bush ’s selection , the attention move around to the nominee who had become know as the " Other Edith . “ Bush , of course , selected John G. Roberts , a justice on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals , instead . Clement continues to serve as a Fifth Circuit judge .
8. Harriet Miers
When Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died in September 2005 , Roberts ’s confirmation was still pending . Bush swallow and then resubmitted Roberts ’s nomination , this prison term for Chief Justice , leaving O’Connor ’s seat vacant once again . Bush nominated a woman , his unaired friend Harriet Miers , but the choice set off unprecedented criticism from both party . Robert Bork called the nominating address " a catastrophe on every level . “ Miers , the White House Counsel who had antecedently served as Bush ’s individual attorney , lacked juridic experience and her perspective on key issue was largely obscure . Facing heated criticism , Bush eventually accept Miers ’s asking to withdraw her nominating speech and chose Third Circuit judge Samuel Alito as O’Connor ’s substitute .
9. Janet Napolitano
The scant leaning of Barack Obama ’s candidates to interchange David Souter when Souter announced his plans to retire at the end of the Supreme Court ’s condition in 2009 included Seventh Circuit judge Pamela Wood , future campaigner Kagan , and the eventual nominee , Second Circuit judge Sonia Sotomayor . Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was also among the candidates who met with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden before a decision was made . Had Napolitano been nominated and confirmed , she would have service alongside Clarence Thomas . In 1991 , Napolitano symbolise Anita Hill , who had charge Thomas of sexual harassment , during the Senate Judiciary Committee ’s sense of hearing on the matter .
