successfulr's general wrote, i congratulate you on the president's selection of pierce butler for thevacancy occurr. taft had worked behind the scenes to attract support from the catholic hierarchy for butlers nomination. although the chief treated and nominees religion as an irrelevancy, with chief justice no catholicand death, 's death, would remain on the bench. the last nomination, edward sanford, attracted taft;''s content. in 1925, he recommended attorney general harlan stone. when holmes stepped off the court in 1932, his colleague justice stone and urged president herbert hoover to name benjamin cardozo. he had pronounced him the outstanding jurists of our times. in an unsuccessful advocacy of his appointment by calvin coolidge. no justice, stone, offered to resign from the court in case people would object to his becoming the third member of the court by the empire state. hoover relented to the acclaim cardoza received an nominated him in 1932. he would serve only a halffdozen years before his premature death, but he is considered among the greats to have the grace of the nat