jimmy carter was the president who appointed four justices to the supreme court.
jimmy carter was the president who appointed four justices to the supreme court.
which president appointed four justices to the supreme court?
jimmy carter
the term began to be used by conservative and moderate republican presidents beginning with richard nixon in 1968 when he was running for election. his pledge was to appoint justices that interpret the law and reinstate "law and order" to the judiciary. he appointed four justices that seemed (at the time) to be of that philosophy. one of them, however, shifted leftward, while another became a moderate. the other two were in the mold of what most think of in terms of strict constructionists. gerald ford, when running to serve a full term of his own distanced himself from this issue. ronald reagan, however, also promised "strict constructionists". all three of his us supreme court nominees loosely fell into this category. still one was more of an originalist while the other two were fairly conservative. every major republican candidate since reagan has promised to nominate only strict constructionists for the us supreme court and mostly such judges for other federal courts.
strict constructionism
on january 10, 1825, desha appointed four justices to the new court. he chose his secretary of state, former u.s. senator william t. barry, as chief justice. the other three members were lexington lawyer james haggin, circuit judge john trimble (brother of supreme court justice robert trimble), and benjamin patton. of the new court – called by detractors the "desha court" – barry "seems to have been the only one who had in a measure an even show in experience, prestige, and ability to rank as a jurist with the old-court justices", according to stickles. achilles sneed, clerk of the old court, refused to surrender the court's records to francis p. blair, clerk of the new court, so blair took the records from sneed's office by force, and sneed was fined 10 pounds for contempt of court because of his refusal to cooperate. the old court continued to hear cases in a frankfort church, while the new court occupied the official court chambers. neither recognized the other, and both claimed to be the legitimate court of last resort in the state. most of the state's lawyers and judges were supporters of the old court and continued to practice before them and abide by their mandates, but others chose to acknowledge the new court as legitimate.
joseph desha