frontrunner and mcreynolds get into this debate about civil service -- frankfurter and mcreynolds getnto this debate about civil service. of course, frankfurter thinks people should be hired based on merit. says, but what about all these people who have been gettinging me about their favorite political candidates hired? was,furter's report attorney general, you are responsible for the american people, not the politicians who are knocking on your door for constituents to get in the justice department. brian: there are stories that meant reynolds wouldn't even sit in the same room with brandeis -- thata picture taken mcreynolds wouldn't even sit in the same room with brandeis to have a picture taken. mr. snyder: that story is apocryphal. there is a wonderful article in the journal of supreme court history that there is no truth to the rumor that there was no mcreynolds23 because refused to have his photo taken next to brandeis. that is not true. what is true is that mcreynolds was incredibly nasty to brandeis and incredibly nasty with sir zaragoza, theth second jewish justice. hadn: har

but on the far left is james mcreynolds, and up top on the far right is louis brandeis.n the middle is the former president of the united states william howard taft. what is he doing there? mr. snyder: taft has the unique distention of being a former president sitting on the supreme court as chief justice. a move that people speculated might be in obama's future. i doubt it, but people speculated that. taft really helped remake that court into a much more conservative court. when warren harding becomes president and a liberals like felix frankfurter are kind of in the wilderness, harding, and a short period of time -- he only spent three years in office -- a point four members to the court, including taft. after that, he helps harding select very conservative people to the court and tilted in a conservative direction. these three liberals in that photo are brandeis, the man in the upper right corner of the photo, and some people would say that holmes is a liberal, although he is difficult to categorize. not liberal by today's standards. james mcreynolds, louis brandeis b

what is true, mcreynolds was dozea o brandeis and cor who was second jewish justice. and they think that was based on their religion. host: stone had just gotten on the court in 1925, what was unique about his confirmation process? guest: first supreme court justice to testify before the united states senate and testified about a discrete issue when he was attorney general. but he was the first person ever to testify. the first person to testify about any subject was felix frankfurter in 1939. after frankfurter testified in 1939, every supreme court nominee testified after frankfurter. he started the tradition but the first person to testify was stone. the person we haven't talked about and the shadow figure in the house is louis brandeis because his nomination by wilson. mcrenolts had become a huge conservative force on the court. ere were gasps on the senate floor that he could nominate him because he had a radical reputation. and most of the people that was outraged was william howard taft whose comments privately about the brandeis nomination were ugly and drifted