# The President can nominate someone not on the court to be chief justice, right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536 "2005-06-23T15:14:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/21 "2005-06-25T04:17:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Actually, the only VPs this century who were elected to the Presidency directly after the President they served under were Taft and GHW Bush. William Taft was Secretary of War in the Roosevelt administration not Vice President. Martin Van Buren was the only VP before Bush to go directly to the Presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/22 "2005-06-25T04:41:48Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > William Taft was Secretary of War in the Roosevelt administration not Vice President. :smack: I knew I should have checked. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/23 "2005-06-25T06:51:34Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > \*\*The Chief is extremely powerful. \*\* Bush may feel that his agenda will be better served by a Chief that is very closely sympatico than a Chief Scalia or Thomas, with whom Bush has already had serious disagreement, + another associate justice at the bottom of the totem pole. > …–Cliffy Not really. The only duties the Chief Justice has that the other justices don’t is that he presides over sessions of the court and if he’s in the majority he writes the court’s opinion (or assigns it to another justice). If he’s in the minority or abstains from deliberations the senior associate justice. P.S. The Chief Justice is also the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution. ---
**Author:** ![Yogurt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/f0a364/32.png) [@Yogurt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yogurt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/24 "2005-06-25T08:34:32Z")
> [@tofergregg](#): > > SCOUS (is that the correct abbreviation here?)…-Tofer I believe SCO **T** US is the accepted abbreviation. ---
**Author:** ![richardb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/96bed5/32.png) [@richardb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richardb)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/25 "2005-06-25T09:52:05Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > While this is true, I believe it implies that the Chief is not much more powerful than any other justice. That is certainly not correct. Sorry **Cliffy** , I didn’t mean to imply that your comments were incorrect in any way. I was just responding to **Scupper** ’s question, asking if it “Wouldn’t it be better for Bush’s agenda to appoint an existing member, thus vacating a slot and allowing him to nominate another conservative to fill the newly-vacated slot?” Your answer certainly gave reasons why the Chief Justice is more powerful and influential than the other Justices, but it did not address the misconception inherent in that question, which is essentially asking why Bush doesn’t use the option that gives him an additional conservative on the court. The answer to that question, as I said, is that option doesn’t exist. He gets one conservative to replace Renquist whether he nominates a current Justice for Chief Justice and then nominates a new Associate Justice, or whether he nominates for Chief Justice someone who is not currently on the Supreme Court. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/26 "2005-06-25T12:44:27Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Not really. The only duties the Chief Justice has that the other justices don’t is that he presides over sessions of the court and if he’s in the majority he writes the court’s opinion (or assigns it to another justice). If he’s in the minority or abstains from deliberations the senior associate justice. > > P.S. The Chief Justice is also the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution. And presides over the Senate during an impeachment trial. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/27 "2005-06-25T16:55:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > And presides over the Senate during an impeachment trial. Correction. When the Senate sits as the Court for the Trial of Impeachments, the Vice President presides in his capacity as President of the Senate. But when the President (and presumably the Vice President) is the person impeached, the Chief Justice presides, the reason being to avoid putting the VP in a conflict of interests. Article I, Section 3, clause 6 provides that the CJ preside over the trial of the President; it would be my assumption that the VP would not be allowed to preside over his own trial, and hence either the President Pro Tem of the Senate or the Chief Justice would be required to preside. But of course I have no cite to prove that. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/28 "2005-06-25T19:22:47Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > And presides over the Senate during an impeachment trial. And is the banker when the SCOTUS has its annual “Monopoly” tournament during recess. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/29 "2005-06-25T19:26:13Z")
From the Senate rules regarding impeachment, adopted in 1986. > [@](#): > > IV. When the President of the United States or the Vice President of the United States, upon whom the powers and duties of the Office of President shall have devolved, shall be impeached, the Chief Justice of the United States shall preside; and in a case requiring the said Chief Justice to preside notice shall be given to him by the Presiding Officer of the Senate of the time and place fixed for the consideration of the articles of impeachment, as aforesaid, with a request to attend; and the said Chief Justice shall be administered the oath by the Presiding Officer of the Senate and shall preside over the Senate during the consideration of said articles and upon the trial of the person impeached therein. [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/rules.htm](http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/rules.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/30 "2005-06-25T21:05:24Z")
The Chief, in addition to presiding over the Supreme Court, is also the administrative head of the Federal court system, with significant authority over the lower Federal courts. Someone with access to the Federal court rules will have to specify what, but I know that the CJ’s influence on District and Circuit Courts is not lightly disregarded. As for the assignment of opinions, the rule is: (1) When the Chief Justice is in the majority, he decides who will write the majority opinion; (2) when the Chief recuses himself or is in the minority, the senior Associate Justice in the majority does the assignment. This can include retaining the opinion for himself or picking the justice most likely to keep a majority, a significant point in 5-4 decisions where one man may decide to write a concurrence rather than joining in what would have been the majority opinion, reducing that opinion from the status of law to the equivalent of a dissent or concurrence. (In theory, the chief and the three senior associates could constitute a minority of four, and the #4 most senior justice do the assigning. In practice, it’s the Chief and one or two senior Associates who often disagree with him who handle the assignments. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/31 "2005-06-25T22:25:05Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Even when that isn’t the case, by choosing the person who writes the opinion, the Chief wields great power over the precise interpretation it will be given because he knows what all his colleagues are thinking, he knows their writing styles… As well as the writing styles of their law clerks… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/32 "2005-06-27T04:47:49Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > Martin Van Buren was the only VP before Bush to go directly to the Presidency. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both were Veep when elected President. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/33 "2005-06-27T13:11:03Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Not really. The only duties the Chief Justice has that the other justices don’t is that he presides over sessions of the court and if he’s in the majority he writes the court’s opinion (or assigns it to another justice). Is there an echo in here? –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/34 "2005-06-27T14:39:40Z")
I heard some radio report this weekend where Supreme Court scholars weighing in on various aspects of the appointment processs. Someone said that it’s often better to appoint a Chief Justice from outside. They said that after years of working together, the justices have their loyalties and (more importantly) their grudges. Promoting one of them changes the balance of powers (or balance of pettiness?) in counterproductive ways. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536/35 "2005-06-27T14:48:00Z")
> [@](#): > > John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both were Veep when elected President. True, although that was before the 12th Amendment changed the VP election procedure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-can-nominate-someone-not-on-the-court-to-be-chief-justice-right/309536.md?page=1)