Angst is brewing over the confirmation battle for the Justice Anthony Kennedy seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. An example from the early ‘90s offers some perspective on the subject. The name of then-Governor Mario M. Cuomo was floated, and after a short tease, disappeared into an historical footnote. What happened?

It was reliably reported that President Bill Clinton considered (some said, even offered) Cuomo the nomination to SCOTUS. Speculation ensued that Cuomo, if appointed, would become the jurisprudential equalizer to fellow Queens New York native, Justice Nino Scalia. Alas, the rousing intellectual debates around the super-secret Court conference table never came to be.