artie_fufkin wrote:

"These views, more so than his Jewishness, probably played a role into the controversy that surrounded his appointment by Wilson around 1916.  For whatever reason, 4 or 5 past presidents of the American Bar Association testified before the Senate that he was "unfit" to serve.  It took approximately a year for him to be confirmed."

Maybe because like most people I'm prone to look at things through my own prism rather than with a historical context, I thought "Borking" a Supreme Court nominee was a relatively new phenomenon.
I'd ask you your opinion on the Merrick Garland shenanigan, but I'm afraid I'd be on an island here with that one.

Since I had to go to Wikipedia to remind myself what you were referring to, and need to think of it a whole more than I have to respond.  Interestingly, I note that Merritt was a law clerk to Henry Friendly and practiced briefly with the firm that was once known as Arnold, Porter, and Fortas, or maybe it was Arnold, Fortas, and Porter?