who nominated stephen g. breyer?
Bill Clinton
neutral
 Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009 . Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President , but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months . Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award , or worthy of the company it would place him in . Past Peace Prize laureates were divided , some saying that Obama deserved the award , and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade . Obama 's award , along with the previous Peace Prizes for Jimmy Carter and Al Gore , also prompted accusations of a left @-@ wing bias . 

entailment
 The conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch announced after the nomination that it believed a Saxbe fix was unconstitutional and that Clinton could not become Secretary of State until 2013 at the earliest . After the Saxbe fix was passed , Judicial Watch said it might seek to halt Clinton 's appointment via litigation . On January 29 , 2009 , a week after Clinton had been sworn into the position , Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit Rodearmel v. Clinton in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia , on behalf of David Rodearmel , a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and State Department employee . The suit claims that Clinton is " constitutionally ineligible " to serve as Secretary of State due to the Ineligibility Clause and that Rodearmel cannot be forced to serve under her , as it would violate the oath he took as a Foreign Service Officer in 1991 to " support and defend " and " bear true faith and allegiance " to the U.S. Constitution . On February 6 , a panel of three judges was appointed to hear the case . On May 20 , the Obama administration Office of Legal Counsel filed an opinion with the district court saying that Clinton 's appointment did not violate the Ineligibility Clause , and that an " on net " view of the Clause " presents an entirely natural interpretation of the [ Constitution 's ] language . " On October 30 , 2009 , the District Court dismissed the case , stating " Because Rodearmel has failed to allege that Clinton has taken any action — much less an action that has aggrieved him — he does not come within the ' zone of interests ' protected by the Secretary of State Emoluments Act . " 

entailment
 G. Harrold Carswell was unsuccessfully nominated by Richard Nixon in 1970 , and was convicted in 1976 of battery for making an " unnatural and lascivious " advance to a male police officer working undercover in a Florida men 's room . Some therefore claim him as the only gay or bisexual person nominated to the Court thus far . If so , it is unlikely that Nixon was aware of it ; White House Counsel John Dean later wrote of Carswell that " [ w ] hile Richard Nixon was always looking for historical firsts , nominating a homosexual to the high court would not have been on his list " . 

entailment
 Clinton 's desire to appoint a woman to the post engendered some criticism for devaluing the position to an affirmative action post , and Stephanopoulos later conceded that " we put ourselves in a box " . The failure of the Baird and Wood picks , along with Lani Guinier 's failed nomination ( for unrelated reasons ) to Assistant Attorney General for Department of Justice Civil Rights Division a few months later , made Congressional Democrats cautious in endorsing future Clinton personnel choices . When federal judge Stephen Breyer was first considered for a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy in mid @-@ 1993 , he was not selected , in part because he too had a ' Zoë Baird problem ' ( he would be nominated and confirmed the following year , following another vacancy ) . 

neutral
 One of the few men to make the short list for the Attorney General selection , Washington lawyer Charles Ruff , was ruled out of consideration by the White House on February 6 , because he had not paid Social Security taxes for years for a woman who cleaned his house . 
