The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves open a vacancy and a confirmation fight for the Supreme Court, one occurring during an already contentious election and a year that saw the impeachment of a president and a global pandemic.

This isn't the first time we've had a vacancy in the nation's

highest court during an election year. Here to discuss the history of these vacancies is

Professor David Greenberg from Rutgers University. He is the author of numerous books

about presidents, including Nixon's shadow, the history of an image and Republic of Spin.

That's another book he wrote.

Republic of Spin, an inside history of the American presidency.

And he's also a contributing editor at Politico magazine.

So Professor Greenberg, thanks for being on this show.

Sure. Glad to be here with you. So whenever these vacancies happen and there's a confirmation

process, it seems that there's so much at stake in these processes right now. What were

vacancy nominations and these processes like prior to the 20th century?

Well, it's really been a varied history, which often gets forgotten. For most of the 19th century,

it was a pretty political process, and it was not uncommon for a president's

nominee to the Supreme Court to be rejected or otherwise fail to make it onto the bench.

I think something like a quarter of nominees failed.

And especially in the years surrounding slavery,

the antebellum years, you know, those questions could loom large in confirmation fights.

Then what's interesting in the 20th century, you have really the beginnings of the rise of the strong presidency with figures like

Theater Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. And a lot of society, including Congress, including the press,

become somewhat more deferential to presidential authority.

So for, I would say, the first two-thirds of the 20th century, you have a pattern of deference where

...