<--PREV Doc #21  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #23 Document #22; February 5, 1957 Diary Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   Almost four years ago, the Attorney General and I agreed that except for the position of Chief Justice, we would confine our selections for the Supreme Court to people who had served on either minor Federal benches or on the Supreme Courts of various States.1 We also agreed that so far as possible, we would try to get a balance on the Court between Democrats and Republicans. In working toward this balance (the Court was 8 to 1 Democratic when I was first inaugurated), I have appointed two Republicans and one Democrat.2 Yesterday I saw in the paper quite a squib concerning the qualifications of Herb Brownell himself for the Supreme Court.3 While I was certain the article was not "inspired," I did have a short talk with the Attorney General last evening. I mentioned the article and asked him whether he was still of the opinion that we should stick to our plan of selecting Supreme Court judges from sitting judges on the lower courts, always with the rule, too, that they be under 62 years of age. He agreed. He did say, however, that our rule should not be inflexible, in the event we did discover some outstanding attorney who we should like to put directly on the Supreme Court. I told him that if he had any ambitions to go on the Court, that we should appoint him immediately to the vacancy now existing on the Appellate Court in New York and then when and if another vacancy occurred on the Supreme Court, I could appoint him to it. He said he thought we should just let things go as they were. It is entirely possible that he would like to be on the Supreme Court. But I think that on the balance he prefers to go back to private practice some day and earn some money for himself and his family.4 1 See Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, pp. 226 - 29, and Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 457. Herbert Brownell, Jr., served as Attorney General from January 21, 1953, to November 8, 1957. 2 During his first Administration, Eisenhower had appointed Republicans Earl Warren and John Marshall Harlan, and Democrat William Joseph Brennan to the Supreme Court (see ibid., nos. 1386 and 2009). 3 We have been unable to identify the article to which Eisenhower was referring. At the President's news conference on February 6, 1957, a reporter would make reference to "recurrent speculative reports" that Brownell might be under consideration for the Supreme Court opening (Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1957, p. 123). 4 Brownell would return to private practice in November 1957 (see Herbert Brownell with John P. Burke, Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell [Lawrence, Kans., 1993], pp. 176 - 85, 329 - 30). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Diary, 5 February 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 22. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/22.cfm <--PREV Doc #21  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #23

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