Lex Phonographica 8: Louis M. Kohlmeier, Jr., "God Save This Honorable Court: The Supreme Court Crisis, Part 2" (1972)

Part 2: Nixon Scores in Court

In the aftermath of the 1968 election, Richard Nixon was President of the United States and John Mitchell was his Attorney General. Chief Justice Earl Warren followed through on retiring from the Supreme Court, and Associate Justice Abe Fortas was forced out of his seat by a wave of scandal at almost the same time. In his wake, Nixon's first nominee, Warren Burger, ascended remarkably easily to become Chief Justice. However, things became far more complicated when Nixon tried to make good on the Southern Strategy's promises by nominating a strict constructionist from the South. Clement Haynsworth, Jr. and G. Harrold Carswell weren't destined to be justices, but their brush with power revealed a lot about the politics of modern Supreme Court nominations and Nixon's plans to engineer a sharp right-wing turn for the Court.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Part 2 Introduction

[00:01:53] 07) Into Nixon's Lap (Fortas)

[00:38:01] 08) Nixon Runs With The Ball (Burger)

[01:16:29] 09) Nixon Scores in Court

[01:42:10] 10) Nixon Fumbles (Haynsworth)

[02:19:17] 11) Nixon Fumbles Again (Carswell)

"God Save This Honorable Court" (https://archive.org/details/godsavethishonor00kohl/page/n7) by Louis M. Kohlmeier, Jr.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_M._Kohlmeier_Jr.)

This episode of Lex Phonographica was read by Mike Overby of Amicus Lectio. You can find the individual chapters on the Internet Archive.

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