Ginsburg was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, and he served as its chief judge from 2001 to 2008. In 1987, Reagan announced his intention to nominate Ginsburg as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration in the wake of news reports that he had smoked marijuana in the past,[1][2][3][4] and Reagan instead nominated Anthony Kennedy.
From 1988 to 2008, Ginsburg was an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law (now Antonin Scalia Law School), where he taught a seminar called "Readings in Legal Thought".[11] Until 2011 he was also a Visiting Lecturer and Charles J. Merriam Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Ginsburg has been a visiting professor at Columbia University Law School (1987–1988) and a visiting scholar at New York Law School (2006–2008).
Ginsburg was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on September 23, 1986, to a seat on the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge J. Skelly Wright. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 8, 1986, and received his commission on October 14, 1986. He served as Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit from 2001 to 2008, and he assumed senior status on October 14, 2011.[13]
He was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 2001–2008, and previously served on its Budget Committee, 1997–2001, and Committee on Judicial Resources, 1987–1996; American Bar Association, Antitrust Section, Council, 1985–1986 (ex officio), 2000–2003 and 2009–2012 (judicial liaison); Boston University Law School, Visiting Committee, 1994–1997; and University of Chicago Law School, Visiting Committee, 1985–1988.
On October 29, 1987, President Reagan announced his intention to nominate Ginsburg to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Lewis Powell,[14][15] which had been announced on June 26.[16] Ginsburg was chosen after the United States Senate, controlled by Democrats, had voted down the nomination of Judge Robert Bork after a highly controversial nomination battle which ended with a 42–58 rejection vote on October 23.[17]
Ginsburg's nomination collapsed for entirely different reasons from Bork's rejection, as he almost immediately came under some fire when NPR's Nina Totenberg revealed that Ginsburg had used marijuana "on a few occasions" during his student days in the 1960s and while an assistant professor at Harvard in the 1970s. It was Ginsburg's continued use of marijuana after graduation and as a professor that made his actions more serious in the minds of many senators and members of the public.[18] Ginsburg was also accused of a financial conflict of interest during his work in the Reagan Administration, but a Department of Justice investigation under the Ethics in Government Act determined the allegation was baseless.[19]
Due to the allegations, Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration on November 7,[2][3] and remained on the Court of Appeals, serving as chief judge for most of the 2000s. Anthony Kennedy was then nominated on November 11 and confirmed in early February 1988 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.[20][21]
Personal life
Ginsburg married the public relations consultant Deecy Gray in 2007 in a ceremony at the U.S. Supreme Court performed by Chief JusticeJohn Roberts.[22] He has three daughters from two previous marriages.
—; Wright, Joshua D. (2015). "Philadelphia National Bank: Bad Economics, Bad Law, Good Riddance". Antitrust Law Journal. 80 (2): 377–96. JSTOR26411541.
