The Great West Wing Rewatch: 5.17 "The Supremes"

Joel: Ok, this feels like a good old classic episode of West Wing. One where there is a clear problem, an ideal answer that will never work, some clever and unique plan that works out and our heroes are able to make real progress in making the country a better place.
What’s more this episode has a great deal of focus of the political aspect of the Supreme Court appointments, something that was already addressed in the first season. Frequently when political issues are brought up on the show, the extremes are often condemned as the reasons for the biggest problems in the country, especially when they refuse to compromise on principle. However, in this case, it is the moderate attitudes that are condemned as the biggest issue that’s making the country run ineffectively. The two people who are considered the solution to this problem are one extreme liberal and an extreme conservative. Instead of being portrayed as stubborn, they are both being hailed in the episode as intelligent servants of the people who are the only ones able to save the Supreme Court from the unimpressive stupor that it’s currently stuck in. I love how both potential judges are polite, clever, and able to hold onto their beliefs the whole time. Even if I may not agree with the views of both people, both of them present themselves as people who understand the weight of being on the supreme court and would take the job very seriously, trying to do everything they could to better the country.

Chris: I've always considered myself a bit of a moderate but a country isn't full of moderates and, ultimately, it shouldn't be and it's important that our government reflects the people that makes up the country it governs and that's the point of the double switch in this episode. It's interesting to me the notion of filling a vacant Supreme Court spot on the bench with essentially a carbon copy of the person that vacated that spot. That idea seems to be counter-intuitive to progressing the country especially seeing as how the nation would probably be completely different compared to the social climate when that Justice was originally appointed. And it's indicative of a toxic political climate that such a scheme would have to be implemented just to ensure a liberal cabinet would be able to nominate a liberal Justice and have the nomination pass the Senate. Luckily it works out in West Wing that even the guy the liberal cabinet disagrees with still ends up being a legal genius. Us filthy peasants living in the real world rarely ever get that lucky.

A good president nominates two cats for the Supreme Court.