ABSTRACT
The Constitutional Convention's decision in 1787 to give both the president and the Senate a role in the selection of judges was a compromise between two groups of delegates: one favored giving the president the sole power to appoint judges, the other wanted the Senate to make the selections. As president, Lincoln paid little heed to the Court's ruling in Dred Scott. He directly repudiated the Court's constitutional interpretation by signing legislation that abolished slavery in every federal territory and the District of Columbia. During the presidential campaign of 1968, Richard Nixon blamed the Warren Court's judicial activism for strengthening "the criminal forces" in society and contributing to a breakdown in "law and order." Barack Obama was arguably the first president since FDR to face the prospect of a Court invalidating his signature policy achievement, but Obama lacked the overwhelming congressional majorities that made FDR's challenge to judicial power credible.
