On Dworkin and Borkin'
Electing Justice: Fixing the Supreme Court Nomination Process. By Richard Davis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 3, 211. $28.
Justice in Robes. By Ronald Dworkin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. Pp. 1, 308. $35.
In 2005, for the first time in 34 years, the President of the United States faced the task of filling two Supreme Court vacancies in the same year. A great national debate ensued. The debate focused not only on the qualifications of the President’s nominees, but also on the nomination process itself. Acrimony seemed ineluctable. One nomination proved so controversial that the candidate withdrew her name. The hearings on the President’s nominations dominated national news for months. Eventually, by January 31, 2006, the nomination hearings closed and the Supreme Court once again had a full complement of justices. Yet a number of vexing questions about the nomination process—and about the very duties of a Supreme Court justice—persist to this day.