Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

150 years ago, Supreme Court nominations weren't the spectacle they are now. This was a time when nominees' private lives weren't that much of an issue, if at all.

Episodes from the past, like the sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas in 1991 and the sexual assault allegations today against Brett Kavanaugh passed with fleeting

interest.

For example, in 1890, Henry Brown sailed through the confirmation process after being accused of shooting and killing someone.

The story of the shooting originated from an unlikely source, Brown's friend and neighbor, Senator James McMillan.

One night, McMillan told reporters outside the Capitol, a masked burglar entered Brown's home.

Brown pulled out a gun from beneath his pillow, McMillan said, and then greeted the burglar

by shooting him in the head. The New York Sun's correspondent wrote that the burglar escaped, but lived long enough to be

captured and convicted, and later died in prison from his wound.

So, just how did Brown easily win confirmation with blood on his hands?

Was it because his advisors prepped him well for questions or because he had

convincing character witnesses? Nope and nope. Back then, the sort of spectacles that take place now

didn't exist because Supreme Court nominees never appeared in public to testify.

The Senate Judiciary Committee created in 1816 worked on these nominations behind closed doors.

Before 1870, about one-third of the nominations weren't even sent to the Judiciary Committee for review.

And back in Henry Brown's time, there were only nine members on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Today, there are 21, not to mention dozens of lawyers, investigators, consultants, you name it.

That makes for a lot of questions.

News traveled slower back then too, and that

made it more difficult for controversy to take hold, or for the real story to emerge. While some

newspapers characterize Henry Brown shooting a burglar as manslaughter, many called him a hero, or a man of iron nerve.

...