How, pray tell, is it that 7 of the current 9 Supreme Court Justices were nominated by Republican Presidents, yet routinely the votes come out 5-4?
Need help with my maths.
The “swing” vote is Reagan’s liberal choice, A. Kennedy.
Souter was a moderate when GHW Bush nominated him but turned into a liberal along the way. Happily for us, GHWB also nominated Thomas who cancels Souter out. Clinton got in two liberals which bumped the court leftward. Reagan put in one conservative, Scalia and two swing voters, Kennedy and O’Connor.
Unhappily for us, older conservatives can degenerate into swing voters, but older liberals never improve.