Biden Helped Shape Supreme Court

Vice President Joe Biden “played a more consequential role in the history of the Supreme Court than almost any senator in American history,” Jeffrey Toobin argues in The New Yorker. While serving as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Biden oversaw confirmation hearings for five Justices. He voted on the nominations of more than a dozen over his lengthy career. Notably, Biden oversaw the controversial confirmation proceedings for both Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 and Robert Bork in 1987. Though Biden had the tendency to be an “insufferable windbag” during confirmation hearings, “if Biden never did another thing as a Senator than protect the nation from Robert Bork as a Supreme Court Justice, he will have a more significant, and noble, legacy than many Presidential candidates.”