It used to be that credentials were more the point. In 1932, when Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. retired, President Herbert Hoover nominated Benjamin Cardozo, widely thought to be the finest judge in the country. Hoover was a Republican; Cardozo, a Democrat. “Seldom, if ever, in the history of the Court has an appointment been so universally commended,” the New York Times reported on its front page.
