Article II, Section 2: The Senate's "Advice and Consent"
Article II, Section 2.m4aThe Senate offered much advice and--barely--its consent to Pres. George H. W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas.
The Senate offered much advice and--barely--its consent to Pres. George H. W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas.
At the Supreme Court level, an open seat can lead to some very public battles between a president and the Senate, not to mention fights between partisans in the Senate and the public alike. In 1991, Anita Hill (top left) accused Supreme Court nominee and sitting federal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (right), but as Justice Thomas's official Supreme Court portrait suggests (bottom left), the Senate ultimately gave its "consent" to Thomas's nomination--he was "confirmed," we say, to the associate justice position he still holds.