Senate. The Jacksonians had no intention of allowing another Adams to appoint another midnight justice. Jackson nominated Trimble’s replacement two days into his term, and he was confirmed the next day.

Jackson ran into his own Senate roadblock when he sent two nominees to the Whig-controlled Senate in January 1835, and one of them (Roger Taney) was — like Crittenden — tabled by the Senate without a formal up-or-down vote on the nomination. But the Democrats had won back the Senate in the 1834 elections, so when John Marshall died the following summer, Jackson filled the original vacancy with another nominee and got Taney confirmed to be chief justice.

The Jacksonians weren’t done stocking the Court: On Jackson’s last day in office, they passed the Eighth and Ninth Circuits Act,expanding the Court from seven justices to nine, and Jackson nominated two new justices, who were confirmed by the incoming Senate (which remained in Democratic hands, as did the presidency) five days later. One of the nominees declined, and his successor was selected by Jackson’s successor, Martin Van Buren. Van Buren, in turn, had the help of a Democrat-controlled Senate in confirming his own lame-duck midnight justice, Peter Daniel, in February 1841 after losing his attempt at reelection in 1840.

1844–1864: The Man without a Party

No sooner had the Jacksonians established the principle that control of the Supreme Court belonged to the parties than two vacancies fell into the hands of a president who had no base of support in any party.

John Tyler, the first vice president to become