Supreme Court Appointments
What does the president consider when selecting a nominee?
Qualifications!
Most nominations in recent decades have been of federal judges, though this is not required by law. The president wants to make sure the justice does a good job!
Matching Ideologies
The president wants to appoint someone who agrees with his political and moral views. He's going to pick someone on his side!
Outgoing Justice
The Senate wants someone with similar views to the previous justice to keep the balance. If the leaving justice was liberal, a conservative president might do best to pick a more moderate conservative than a radical. The president does after all want to get approval from the Senate (and technically the public) so his nomination gets put through.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor by Chicago Amplified
A political cartoon about the Senate's evaluations of President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan