Confirmation Bias: Inside Washington's War Over the Supreme Court, from Scalia's Death to Justice Kavanaugh

by Carl Hulse

Overview

From the chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, a richly detailed, news-breaking look at the unprecedented political fight over Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court vacancy and the seemingly irreversible dysfunction it triggered across all three branches in the nation’s capital, ultimately delivering us Trump, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh--updated with a new preface.

The embodiment of American conservative thought and jurisprudence, Antonin Scalia cast an expansive shadow over the Supreme Court for three decades. His death at a Texas hunting resort in February 2016 created a dilemma for Republican leadership faced with the prospect of yet another Obama Supreme Court nominee, this time one who could tip the ideological balance of the court and alter the course of American history.

In Confirmation Bias, Carl Hulse tells an exclusive account of the rush of events following Scalia’s death, including Mitch McConnell’s extraordinary snap decision to deny President Obama’s nominee so much as a hearing, let alone a vote. The author recounts the unsuccessful Democratic effort to break the Republican blockade on behalf of Merrick Garland, a failure that allowed Donald Trump to exploit the vacancy to entice evangelicals and other leery Republicans to rally support and deliver him the presidency.

Newly empowered, Trump and his White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II moved quickly to install Neil Gorsuch on the court. The plan from the start was to have a second judge with a Republican pedigree—Brett Kavanaugh—join Gorsuch at the first opportunity in order to cement a majority conservative bloc. Aided by McConnell and the willingness of Republicans to bend Senate practices, the new administration set out to remake not only the Supreme Court, but the lower courts as well, further roiling the Senate and threatening public confidence in the federal judiciary.

With unrivaled access to figures on both sides of the aisle, Hulse revisits the judicial wars of the past twenty years to show how those conflicts have led to our current polarization and resulted in not one but two Trump-nominated conservative justices who could be serving for decades. Confirmation Bias is a prodigious look inside the bitter judicial politics that have torn apart the Senate and transformed the modern Supreme Court from an institution that is supposed to rise above partisanship into one that is increasingly an extension of it.

History will show, argues Hulse, that Scalia’s death and the ugly battles fought in its wake represent an inflection point in American politics, changing the trajectory of three vital arms of our government—the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court—in ways McConnell could not have envisioned that night in 2016.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062862921
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/16/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	262,191
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carl Hulse is chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times and a veteran of more than three decades of reporting in the capital. He has also served as the Washington editor of The Times as well as the chief congressional correspondent. Carl is a native of Illinois and a graduate of Illinois State University. 

Table of Contents

1 Calling the Play 1

2 A Death in Texas 9

3 "Business to Attend To" 14

4 "Of Course the President Is Going to Nominate Someone" 23

5 Playing It Straight 32

6 Pulling a Biden 38

7 The Oval 45

8 The List: Part I 50

9 Lack of Judicial Temperament 57

10 Should Ideology Matter? 65

1 Filibusted 73

12 The Gang's All Here 83

13 Battle Lines 94

14 Going Nuclear 104

15 Dumbledore 114

16 Stalemate 126

17 The List: Part II 138

18 Upset 144

19 Postmortem 154

20 Gorsuch 159

21 One Horse-Sized Duck 172

22 Nuclear Winter 178

23 Giving the Slip to the Blue Slip 182

24 The Trump Judiciary 193

25 The Kennedy Seat 204

26 Golden Boy 217

27 Advice and Dissent 223

28 The Hearing Will Not Come to Order 230

29 The Paper Chase 235

30 The Letter 242

31 "Forever Change the Senate and Our Nation's Highest Court" 259

32 Endgame 266

33 Repercussions 273

34 Polarized 280

Afterword 291

Acknowledgments 297

Notes on Sources 299

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

“Entertaining and shrewd....Hulse is an expert guide through the machinations on Capitol Hill.”   — New York Times Book Review

“Carl Hulse has produced an engrossing take on America’s judicial wars…essential reading…[Hulse] fills his book with interviews and history, which people readily share…Confirmation Bias…gets the story right, however disconcerting it may be.” — The Guardian

“A gripping tale of insider Washington with implications far beyond the capital and far beyond our own time.” — Boston Globe

“The book is an absorbing, if dispiriting, look at the maneuverings of inside players like McConnell and Donald McGahn, Trump’s first White House counsel, and outside advocates like Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who appears to have steered judicial selection as much as anyone at the White House. Hulse, a New York Times correspondent, probes moments of escalation over the years and the backroom machinations of the Trump strategy now transforming the courts and the law. Inevitably, he covers previously reported ground, but Confirmation Bias is an important guide at this crucial time for the stature of America’s judiciary.” — Washington Post

“The book sheds light on the events of the past two years.” — San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

A gripping tale of insider Washington with implications far beyond the capital and far beyond our own time.

Boston Globe

The book is an absorbing, if dispiriting, look at the maneuverings of inside players like McConnell and Donald McGahn, Trump’s first White House counsel, and outside advocates like Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who appears to have steered judicial selection as much as anyone at the White House. Hulse, a New York Times correspondent, probes moments of escalation over the years and the backroom machinations of the Trump strategy now transforming the courts and the law. Inevitably, he covers previously reported ground, but Confirmation Bias is an important guide at this crucial time for the stature of America’s judiciary.

Washington Post

Carl Hulse has produced an engrossing take on America’s judicial wars…essential reading…[Hulse] fills his book with interviews and history, which people readily share…Confirmation Bias…gets the story right, however disconcerting it may be.

The Guardian

Entertaining and shrewd....Hulse is an expert guide through the machinations on Capitol Hill.”  

New York Times Book Review

The book is an absorbing, if dispiriting, look at the maneuverings of inside players like McConnell and Donald McGahn, Trump’s first White House counsel, and outside advocates like Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who appears to have steered judicial selection as much as anyone at the White House. Hulse, a New York Times correspondent, probes moments of escalation over the years and the backroom machinations of the Trump strategy now transforming the courts and the law. Inevitably, he covers previously reported ground, but Confirmation Bias is an important guide at this crucial time for the stature of America’s judiciary.

Washington Post

"Blatant hypocrisy," Hulse declares in this entertaining and shrewd book, is a "defining characteristic" of the United States Senate, certainly in the 21st century…As a longtime Washington correspondent, Hulse is an expert guide through the machinations on Capitol Hill.

The New York Times Book Review - Evan Thomas

The book sheds light on the events of the past two years.

San Francisco Chronicle

The book sheds light on the events of the past two years.

San Francisco Chronicle

Winter 2018

Chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, Hulse covers the battle to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia's death, which countered the long-observed protocols of the U.S. Senate and plopped the presumably above-the-fray Court right into the heart of politics. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

Fred Sanders’s excellent narration has the serious tone you’d expect in an audio about the high-stakes political wars surrounding recent Supreme Court nominations. As the author describes legislative battles over nominees from Merrick Garland to Brett Kavanaugh, Sanders’s seriousness wavers little but is always easy to hear and entirely appropriate for the level of gravitas and drama. Veteran Capitol Hill reporter Carl Hulse has been covering this kind of partisan conflict for 30 years, so he has lots of fascinating stories that have not been previously reported. His insights about the politicians involved are priceless. With a performance from Sanders that captures all of the interpersonal dynamics and vitriol associated with SCOTUS nominations, this is a priceless glimpse into how people get elevated to our highest court. T.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

Fred Sanders’s excellent narration has the serious tone you’d expect in an audio about the high-stakes political wars surrounding recent Supreme Court nominations. As the author describes legislative battles over nominees from Merrick Garland to Brett Kavanaugh, Sanders’s seriousness wavers little but is always easy to hear and entirely appropriate for the level of gravitas and drama. Veteran Capitol Hill reporter Carl Hulse has been covering this kind of partisan conflict for 30 years, so he has lots of fascinating stories that have not been previously reported. His insights about the politicians involved are priceless. With a performance from Sanders that captures all of the interpersonal dynamics and vitriol associated with SCOTUS nominations, this is a priceless glimpse into how people get elevated to our highest court. T.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile