There are other examples of liberal RAT judicial appointments who turn out to be good, but it’s definitely rare. If I knew the federal appellate court and circuit court appointments I would be able to cite some other examples. When it comes to SCOTUS, the last clear example before Byron White was James Clark McReynolds. He was a Woodrow Wilson appointee and one of the most vehemently anti-New Deal justices, and continued to vote that way even after the court caved to FDR and became majority pro-New Deal in 1937.
Trying to fully understand why or how it is an exercise in futility.
No one, especially judges, should have lifetime appointments/jobs; it rots people.
It’s interesting to look at the circumstances of perhaps the only two liberal RAT SCOTUS appointees in the past century that turned out to be good:
James Clark McReynolds had been attorney general under Woodrow Wilson, and apparently he was a mean, grouchy guy that everyone found difficult to work with, including Wilson. Wilson basically appointed him to SCOTUS because he wanted to get rid of him as A.G. but had no reason to fire him. McReynolds was a lifelong RAT and had been known as a trust-buster as A.G., but he veered rightward on everything else and made it clear on the court he couldn’t stand liberals. He wouldn’t even talk to fellow Wilson appointee John Clarke because he loathed the man’s leftist beliefs. He was the court’s most strident Court critic of FDR’s New Deal programs and never waviered from those views.
Byron White was known for his celebrity status as a former football player and he had worked hard for Kennedy’s election in 1960, raising lots of money for him. He didn’t have much a paper trail for a judicial record, but he was a favorite of big labor and JFK appointed him as a favor to them. He’s best known for being the only justice who sided with Rehnquist during Roe v. Wade. He wasn’t even all that conservative but considering he was a RAT appointee, he was definitely more in the mold of Anthony Kennedy than Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He was always an advocate of judicial restrait and admitted he was most comfortable serving under conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist and most uncomfortable serving with Chief Justice Earl Warren.
There might have been a third closet conservative justice if Obama had appointed Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke to SCOTUS. Supposely her name was in the running because of the clout of her powerful RAT machine husband, Alderman Ed Burke, who is the longest serving alderman in Chicago. She was most likely passed over because of her age (turned 70 last year) and heavy involvement in the Catholic Church. Burke’s decisions have been surprisingly decent for a Chicago RAT, albeit not as conservative as your typical downstate Republican judge.