Letter: Follow Hoover’s lead to fill court vacancy

Iowa's own Herbert Hoover has provided us with a template for how to deal with Supreme Court vacancies in an election year. In January 1932, Oliver Wendell Homes retired, creating an opening on the High Court. Nobody suggested that the opening stay vacant until 1933. Quite the contrary. Everybody expected Hoover to move with alacrity in filling the position. By mid-February, he had nominated the distinguished jurist Benjamin Cardozo to the position and by March 1, Cardozo was in his robes in Washington.

Hoover's only reluctance at naming Cardozo stemmed from the fact that he was from New York. Since there was already at least one justice on the High Court from the Empire State, Hoover was afraid this might be the cause for some opposition. When Senators assured him that this would not be a cause for opposition, Hoover made the nomination. Strangely enough the fact that Cardozo was Jewish was not a source for opposition. This is even stranger since the appointment meant that now there would be two Jewish Justices.

If the Republicans of today really were conservatives - believers that the lessons of the past help us deal with the problems of the present and the challenges of the future - they would not have responded with knee-jerk negativity within minutes after we found out that Justice Scalia had gone to his final reward.

Mitchell A. Levin

Cedar Rapids