In the past, it was not unusual for Supreme Court Justices to have been picked from among the ranks of politicians; indeed, until 1969 and the appointment of Warren Burger, almost every Chief Justice had held elective office prior to serving on the Court.
Charles Evans Hughes is perhaps the best example of a politician who found a home on a panel which prides itself on being above politics: his 1916 run for the Presidency and later service as Secretary of State were sandwiched between his 1910 to 1916 tenure as Associate Justice (which followed a stint as Governor of New York), and his run as Chief Justice, which began in 1930 and lasted until 1941.
By contrast, today’s Court contains only one member who has held elective office: Sandra Day O’Connor, a former member of the Arizona Legislature. David Souter almost makes it, but he was appointed, not elected, New Hampshire Attorney-General, as well as to the New Hampshire Superior and Supreme Courts.
Did anything in particular lead to a change in how Justices are selected?
I would have thought that former President William Howard Taft, later Chief Justice, was the best-known example, and that former California governor Earl Warren was next.
Perhaps your answer lies in the growth of government over the generations, requiring more specialization in careers, and making it more difficult for a public servant to easily switch branches.
Taft and Warren are certainly better-known than Hughes. I offered Hughes as an example because he seemed to segue so easily between politics, the Court, back to politics, and then another round with the Court.
The big difference in the appointment of Supreme Court justices came when the Senate decided to take a much longer look at nominees after Warren announced his retirement. Originally Abe Fortas was chosen to be named Chief, but financial improprieties on his part doomed his nomination.
So Burger got the job.
But Nixon had two nominees for another slot get rejected by the Senate (mainly because they were thought to be incompetent) and eventually Blackmun got that seat. (See under “Law of Unintended Consequences”)
I think these events led presidents to realize that with the Senate more carefully scrutinizing nominees, it was better to appoint judges who did not have a big paper trail. And it’s one thing to write controversial opinions, but it’s another to go out on the campaign trail and be even more outspoken.
Warren had never been a judge prior to serving on the Court, I believe. He had been Attorney General of California and I believe the DA for Alameda County along with being, arguably, California’s most popular governor ever.