Nominate and Confirm a Supreme Court Justice

Complete a Word Find
English, Social Studies, U.S. Government

Use Judicious Findings, a word find, to introduce students to the terms related to the work of the Supreme Court and other courts. Teachers also introduce students to four of the “firsts” of the Supreme Court: Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female justice; John Jay, the first Chief Justice; Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice; and William Howard Taft, the first and only president to become a Chief Justice (tenth).

Teachers might expand this activity by asking students to use five or more of the terms in a short statement about the Court.

Follow the Steps to Confirmation
Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History

The Washington Post informational graphic is an easy-to-follow step-by-step explanation of the process from nomination to confirmation. Read and discuss “How a Supreme Court nominee becomes a justice.”

Teachers may also have students listen to “The Confirmation Hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” a National Constitution Center March 24, 2022, podcast.

Search for the Best Nominee
Character Education, U.S. Government, U.S. History

Teachers might begin this activity by explaining the structure and role of the Supreme Court. Then ask students what personal characteristics should a nominee have to be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court? What education and judicial experience would be ideal? How important is it for a nominee to bring diversity to the Court?

Students may be given “Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from Supreme Court” to read and discuss. Justices are appointed for life, but some choose to retire. Get acquainted with Breyer and the vacancy to be filled.

Explain the campaign promise made by Joe Biden. Give students “A guide to the Black female judges who are contenders to replace Justice Breyer.” Based on these brief descriptions, which of these potential nominees meet their criteria for character, career experience and temperament? 

Meet Biden’s Pick For JusticeMeet Biden’s Pick For Justice
Character Education, English, Journalism, U.S. Government, U.S. History

To inform readers when President Biden announced his choice to fill the vacancy when Justice Stephen Breyer’s term officially ended, The Post covered the fulfillment of his constitutional duty. Read and discuss “Biden makes historic pick for top court: Nominating first Black woman fulfills pledge, sets up Senate clash.”

For a more in-depth introduction to the nominee, read “How Ketanji Brown Jackson found a path between confrontation and compromise: Supreme Court nominee was a child of the ‘70s’ who overcame obstacles by finding middle ground” by Marc Fisher, Ann E. Marimow and Lori Rozsa. Discuss her high school and college days as she and classmates remember her.

The Supreme Court has some online resources for educators. You may wish to review “The Challenge of Selecting an Ideal Supreme Court Nominee.” It includes handouts and resources to “research the characteristics of current justices, list and explain factors that influence nomination selection.”

What About the Hearings?
Journalism, Social Studies, U.S. History, U.S. Government

“Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.”— Sandra Day O' Connor.

Following her nomination, Judge Jackson was vetted then appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, composed of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. It was characterized by many for its biting questioning, grandstanding by potential presidential candidates as well as its thoughtful questions and supportive attitudes.

It was covered live and by news organizations around the world, mixed with news of the horrendous events taking place in Ukraine. Both the news and opinion teams of The Washington Post covered the hearings in print and online. Teachers may ask students to read articles reproduced in the two resource guides as well as these additional ones:

In News Coverage

* “Ketanji Brown Jackson pledges independence and neutrality in Supreme Court confirmation hearing” by Seung Min Kim, Ann E. Marimow and Aaron C. Davis

• “Ketanji Brown Jackson declares herself a modest jurist, defends record against Republican criticism” by Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow

In Post Editorial

• “An opportunity to enlighten” March 21, 2022

• “Republicans boast they have not pulled a Kavanaugh. In fact, they’ve treated Jackson worse.” March 24, 2022

In Columns

• “Forget advise and consent. This is smear and degrade” by Ruth Marcus

• “The eloquent moment that cut through the GOP’s ugliness in the Jackson hearings” by Eugene Robinson

• “The verdict on KBJ’s nomination hearings: Never again” by Charles Lane

• FACT CHECKER | “Josh Hawley’s misleading attack on Judge Jackson’s sentencing of child-porn offenders” by Glenn Kessler

• “GOP grandstanders aren’t the only reason Jackson’s confirmation hearings were so disgraceful” by Jennifer Rubin.

•  “Questions for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson” by George Will

Read the Editorial Cartoons

Art, English, Journalism, Media Literacy, Visual Arts

Four editorial cartoons reflect different aspects of Judge Jackson’s nomination and the confirmation hearings. Give students Visual Commentary | Judge Jackson Hearing. Questions to aid discussion are provided.

The Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial Cartooning (2001) and the first female cartoonist to be awarded the Reuben Award (2017), creates both animated and still visual commentary. Michael de Adder, a political cartoonist for The Washington Post, has received recognition for his editorial cartoons, including the Herblock Prize in 2020. Darrin Bell’s visual commentary appeared in Saturday’s Drawing Board. 

Get to Know the Supreme Courts
Debate, English, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History

George Washington appointed the first Supreme Court: Chief Justice John Jay and Associate Justices John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, James Wilson and Robert Harrison who declined and was replaced by James Iredell.

“How Supreme Court diversity has shaped American Life” reviews different “classes” of the Court and key decisions. The question to be answered: How did diversity — Black men, women and people of different faiths and ethnic heritages influence majority and dissenting opinions?

This activity could be extended and become cross-disciplinary by reading one of the suggested books in the sidebar that is by or about a Supreme Court justice. Students could discuss the justices after becoming more familiar with them, debate their impact on the Court and country, and/or write a book review.

Photograph the Court
Art, Journalism, U.S. Government, U.S. History, Visual Arts

The first photograph of the Supreme Court was taken in February 1867 by Alexander Gardiner who along with Mathew Brady was known for Civil War photography. [It is Gardiner who is known for taking images at Antietam, the first battlefield photographed before the dead were buried.] Gardner’s photograph of the Salmon P. Chase Court is also the only one to have anyone other than the justices in the image. This first one included the Clerk of the Court. 

Teachers should also include Mathew Brady’s role and goals in taking Supreme Court group photographs.

Teachers can use the photographs of representative Courts in “How Supreme Court diversity has shaped American life” and/or go to the online exhibit of the Supreme Court to view “All Together For the Camera: A History of the Supreme Court’s Group Photograph.”

Discuss the images in the article first. What details do students notice in each Court’s photograph?

• How many justices are pictured?

• What are the justices wearing?

• What changes occur in hairstyle, neckwear and seating arrangement?

• Describe the setting.

• Where does the Chief Justice sit? How are the other justices arranged?

Teachers may use what they learn from the Supreme Court online exhibit or ask students to work in groups to read the history and share details in their assigned Court group photograph. Knowing the above information, ask students to make a seating chart for the new Roberts Court photograph.

Who Are the First Five?
Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, Womens Studies

 “Young people can’t name a single Justice on the United States Supreme Court but they can name all three judges on American Idol. It's pretty sad.”   — Sandra Day O’Connor

Ask your students to take Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s challenge. Name the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the eight justices. For an even more difficult question, ask students to name the justices by order of investiture to the Court.

Give students The First Five. In this activity students get to know the first five women to sit on the Supreme Court.

An extension or alternative to this activity would be to learn about the first and early female lawyers, especially those who argued before the Supreme Court. Give students the book review, “A lawyer who broke barriers, for herself and others.”

The Supreme Court has an online exhibit that may be read for an introduction to the first women admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court. Visit “In Re Lady Lawyers: The Rise of Women Attorneys and the Supreme Court.”

Get to Know Supremes
Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History

Supreme Court’s justices are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed (or denied) by the U.S. Senate. In addition to focusing on the first five women to be justices, a study of the Court could include research of these justices that are also “firsts.”

Louis D. Brandeis

Charles Evan Hughes

John Jay

John Marshall

Thurgood Marshall    

Sandra Day O’Connor

William O. Douglas

Sonia Sotomayor

William Howard Taft

Earl Warren

You may also look at the members of one court, for example, the Warren Court. This Court was comprised of men of varied backgrounds and shaped American culture before, during and after serving.

Define and Protect Student Rights
Civics, Debate, Journalism, U.S. Government

This You and Your Rights activity focuses on the Supreme Court decisions that defined and protected student rights. Students and Supreme Court Cases Defining and Protecting Their Rights summarizes most of the Supreme Court decisions that pertain to students. Information is given so students have enough information to decide on the two cases they will research further.

Students may prepare a class presentation of the case, a short research paper or a You & Your Rights symposium for students. A debate may also be held with students presenting the case particulars then arguing the majority and dissenting positions.

What the Court Thinks of the Court
U.S. Government, U.S. History

One of the early documents of America’s founding is “To George Washington from the United States Supreme Court Justices, 13 September 1790.”

It begins: “We, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, in Pursuance of the Letter which you did us the Honor to write on the 3rd of April last, take the Liberty of submitting to your Consideration the following Remarks on the “Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the United States.”2

“It would doubtless have been singular, if a System so new and untried, and which was necessarily formed more on Principles of Theory and probable Expediency, than former Experience had, in Practice, been found entirely free from Defects.”

Older students may be asked to work through the document to determine what concerned the first Supreme Court Justices.

Students may read the official letter of appointment sent by George Washington to his choices for the first Supreme Court. Only one recipient declined. Read “To The Associate Justices of the Supreme Court” written on September 30, 1789, in New York.

• Which qualities did he see in these men?

• What did he expect of them?

Recuse or Stay Seated?
Ethics, U.S. Government, U.S. History

Begin this activity with an explanation of recusal and when it may be used. Also provide students with background on spouses who were activists. One source is “Ginni Thomas is not the first spouse of a Supreme Court justice to make headlines.”

Give the background on Virginia Thomas and the 29 emails she sent to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, as reported by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

Read and discuss “Clarence Thomas has some good advice for his wife.”

The activity Recusal and Spousal Interests includes an editorial cartoon and the article, “Ethicists see Ginni Thomas’s texts as problem for court.”

For additional perspective on the issue, read:

• “Justice Thomas’s wife is a political extremist. This is now a problem for the court.” March 26, 2022

• FindLaw staff’s “How Ginni Thomas’s Texts About the 2020 Election Could Impact the Supreme Court.”

• “Ginni Thomas apologizes to husband’s Supreme Court clerks after Capital riot fallout”

What Is Judicial Review?
U.S. Government, U.S. History

The best-known power of the Supreme Court is judicial review, or the ability of the Court to declare a Legislative or Executive act in violation of the Constitution, is not found within the text of the Constitution itself. The Court established this doctrine in the case of Marbury v. Madison (1803).

Have students form teams to research the impact of Marbury v. Madison, the Judiciary Act of 1789, writs of mandamus (legal orders compelling government officials to act in accordance with the law), Article VI of the Constitution, and the Fourteenth Amendment.

Get to Know Your Officials
Civics, Journalism, U.S. Government, U.S. History

The Post’s Joe Heim interviewed Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative for a Sunday Magazine article. His response to a Q&A follows.

It is the stimulus for an activity in which students are asked to learn about their local judges and the cases they hear. Teachers might invite a judge or member of the staff to visit their classrooms. Prepare students to have pertinent questions ready.

For people who want to help make those things happen, what’s your best advice to them? 

Well, I think we have to become more educated and more involved. Most people in this country don’t know who their district attorney is. They can’t name any of the local judges who impose punishment. Those kinds of decision-makers have enormous power and opportunity to immediately impact some of the worst aspects of the criminal legal system. And so I think we all have a role to play because in those communities they are elected, and we just haven’t been particularly engaged or aware. That’s the first thing. And then I think that has to then manifest itself in other political spaces. I mean, people were promising to execute folks and put children in prisons and do all of these other extreme things because they thought voters would reward them for that. And if we actually challenge people, if we condemn elected officials who engage in the politics of fear and anger, we’ll create a very different political environment.

Track Other Judicial Nominees

Civics, U.S. Government, U.S. History

How has President Biden done in nominating federal judges and filling court vacancies? Read and discuss “Biden, who pledged to diversity the Supreme Court, has already made progress on lower courts.” Two different informational graphics are used. Give students practice in reading them.

The Post tracks positions other than judges that Biden has to win Senate approval for before they can work in top roles in his administration. See the Biden Political Appointee Tracker. What role does the Senate play in filling government positions nominated by the president?

Post NIE Guide Editor | Carol Lange

Post NIE Guide Art Editor | Donna McCullough