Janie Shores - Consideration For Nomination To The U.S. Supreme Court

Consideration For Nomination To The U.S. Supreme Court

In 1993, shortly after U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron White announced his resignation, President Clinton was stymied when his top choice, New York's then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, told him he was not interested. Clinton subsequently asked his staff to expand the search. On May 6, 1993, the Washington Post named Shores as a possible choice for Clinton, particularly since she had served on the Supreme Court of Alabama for four years in the 1970s with then-U.S. Sen. Howell Heflin, who by 1993 was a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. On May 15, 1993, the Birmingham News reported that Heflin had said that the White House was giving "careful consideration" to Shores as a nominee. At a dinner a few weeks earlier, Heflin said that White House Counselor Bernard Nussbaum had "asked me about Janie," the paper reported.

In Jeffrey Toobin's 2007 book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, President Clinton is reported to have pulled Shores' name from a list and wondered whether she might make an appropriate Supreme Court nominee. Toobin notes that Shores was "utterly unknown in Washington legal circles and no one -- not Clinton or anyone on his staff -- had any idea where she stood on constitutional issues or much of anything else." Ultimately, Nussbaum is reported by Toobin to have become "increasingly embarrassed as the names came and went," and "decided to make a stand." Toobin reports that Nussbaum told Clinton, "You are not nominating Janie Shores to the Supreme Court. No one knows who she is. This is insane." Toobin notes that Clinton ultimately relented, and later wound up appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the High Court. For Shores' part, she has said that she was very honored to have even been considered. "It was a great honor to be considered even though I didn't get it," Shores told the Birmingham News in an article that ran on March 29, 1995.

Clinton clearly held some respect for Shores, however. Less than two years later, in January 1995, Clinton appointed Shores to the State Justice Institute, a private, nonprofit entity that provides financial support to projects aimed at improving the administration and quality of state courts.