If Biden gets to nominate a SC Justice, can he nominate them as Chief Justice?

[maxrandb]

I'd love for not only Biden getting to put a good nominee on the court, but the prospect of putting Roberts back in his box appeals to me too.

What are the rules on this?

[Progressive Law]

1. The POTUS can only nominate a new Chief Justice if the current one retires or dies.

[maxrandb]

3. Thanks, I was wondering how Roberts got that job.

[CincyDem]

4. Roberts got the nod when Renquist died in 2005.

Thank God for the timing as Alito was already "in process" toward being an Associate Justice...if I recall the timing correctly.

[Renew Deal]

5. Alito might be the worst one on there

A real true believer.

[CincyDem]

7. Agreed. And we're one Trump appointee away from Alito being the "ideological center" of the court.

I wish I could find it but there was an analysis done a few years ago when Kennedy retired. It looked at the SCOTUS history and how its ideological composition changed over time. Based on their appellate work, their SCOTUS rulings, and their writings...each judge got put on some scale from conservative to liberal.

The fundamental premise was that the judge who sat in the ideological center was the real power player in the courts. At the time of his retirement, that was Kennedy and with Kav's nomination it became Roberts. The report also showed that when the Chief Justice was the ideological center - even if they came into that position with a clear right (or left) bias...they tacked to the center. And that might actually be true of roberts these days on some issues.

To me...the biggest concern in the whole report was that If we lose one of the Liberal 4 and the Federalists nominate someone to the right of Alito (very likely) then Alito actually becomes the ideological center of the court. That puts him in the position to broker the horse trade his vote against the entire agenda for the session.

Think about what hell that could unleash...when he's the "common sense center". Holy pile of chit Batman !

[Renew Deal]

9. There is no situation where Alito becomes the center

Unless Trump nominates around 3 more. Alito is always in the 1 or 2 of 8-1, 7-2 decisions.

[StarfishSaver]

6. Roberts was originally nominated to fill Sandra Day Oonnor's seat

But while the nomination was pending, William Rehnquist died. George W. Bush withdrew the nomination and re-nominated him for Chief Justice. He then nominated Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor. That went south pretty quickly and then he nominated Samuel Alito for her seat.

[CincyDem]

8. Ah - yeah. right. I thought Alito was put up first but he did play second fiddle to Myers. n/t

[Progressive Law]

2. Or if the current one is removed through impeachment and conviction.