Supreme Pressure: The Rejection of John J. Parker and the Birth of the Modern Supreme Court Confirmation Process.
This book examines the 1930 Supreme Court nomination of John J. Parker, a turning point in American judicial politics. Alarmed by some of his past statements and opinions, labor and civil rights groups mounted a fierce campaign to block his confirmation. Not only was control of the Supreme Court hanging in the balance, but Parker’s nomination symbolized a profound clash of ideologies, political agendas, economic doctrines, and interpretations of the Constitution. Their efforts sparked a dramatic Senate revolt, marking the first successful grassroots campaign to block a Supreme Court nominee.
By exploring the circumstances of Parker’s rejection, this book traces how that battle laid the foundation for today’s highly partisan and contentious confirmation process. The book also reintroduces Parker as a consequential but largely forgotten figure in American jurisprudence—one whose rulings helped shape the South’s legal response to Brown v. Board of Education. Beyond the nomination fight, it delves into Parker’s political campaigns, judicial opinions, and relationships with key public figures, charting his dramatic rise, humiliating defeat, and enduring influence.
Packed with intrigue, strategy, and the clash of competing ideologies, this is the story of how one nomination forever changed the rules of the game. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026)
Praise for Supreme Pressure:
Li, a legal historian and journalist, examines the failed nomination of a Depression-era Supreme Court justice.
As the descendent of one of North Carolina’s most distinguished families, John J. Parker’s ancestors included Revolutionary War veterans, two governors (one was also a U.S. senator), and one of the first six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. When Parker himself was nominated by President Herbert Hoover to the Supreme Court in 1930, most journalists and political insiders assumed his confirmation was a given. Yet, despite his pedigree and tenure as young judge, not to mention his connections to some of the South’s most powerful politicians, Parker’s nomination would go down as one of the most hotly contested failed appointments in history. Nominated during the peak of Jim Crow discrimination in the South and the nascent economic collapse associated with the Great Depression, Parker confronted intense opposition from Black civil rights activists and labor organizers. As a member of the Republican Party’s “lily-white” southern faction, Parker had previously declared his support of segregation and laws that severely limited the ability of Black Americans to vote. He had also taken legal stances against the United Mine Workers of America in favor of coal companies. These positions ignited a firestorm of pressure within the Republican Party, and Parker’s nomination would be rejected in a close vote. While the campaign to take down Parker is reported in fascinating detail, what truly stands out in this book are the connections Li makes between this ideological battle of 1930 to the later politicalization of Supreme Court nominees from Robert Bork to Brett Kavanaugh; the author argues that Parker set a precedent that would define nominations across going forward. An assistant managing editor of the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal, host of the Legal Rebels Podcast, and author of a book on Richard Nixon’s electoral strategy, Li blends an absorbing, accessible writing style with solid research based largely on archival and primary sources.
A well-researched, profoundly relevant story of a failed judicial nomination. Verdict: GET IT — Kirkus Reviews
For those struggling to understand how the Supreme Court has devolved into a partisan arena, the roots of this politicization of the judicial system are wisely revealed in Victor Li’s Supreme Pressure: The Rejection of John J. Parker and Birth of the Modern Supreme Court Confirmation Process. Li tracks in detail Herbert Hoover’s failed 1930 nomination of John J. Parker to the Supreme Court – a contest that revealed the early power of interest groups to determine the success or failure of those chosen to sit on the nation’s highest court. Supreme Pressure provides crucial insight into the selection of judicial candidates dominated by special interests on the left and right, and the consequent emergence of a Court split into two camps. — Thomas Byrne Edsall, The New York Times.
Fights over Supreme Court nominations are not new. Victor Li has written a riveting account of how in 1930 the Senate narrowly rejected the nomination of Judge John J. Parker because of his views on civil rights and labor issues. It is the biography of an impressive and important figure in the twentieth century, but it also a tale of how politics are an inevitable part of the judicial confirmation process. — Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, UC Berkeley Law School
Victor Li’s in-depth research and diligence in unearthing the facts regarding Hon. John J. Parker affords his readers the luxury of being able to focus their attention on whether John Parker missed the cues that some of those who would decide his fate believed important — that not only must he follow the law to be an effective Supreme Court justice but he must assure the law he follows is just. Mr. Li’s portrayal of both Judge Parker and the political and ideological times in which he fought for confirmation could not be more relevant to the shaping of the Supreme Court today. — Judy Perry Martinez, of counsel at Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, LLP and former President of the American Bar Association.