George W. Bush

==== Supreme Court ====
{{Main|George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates}}
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| image1 = Roberts, Bush SCOTUS announcement.jpg
| image2 = With President George W. Bush Looking on, Judge Samuel A. Alito Acknowledges his Nomination as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.jpg
| footer = Supreme Court Justice nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito, 2005
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On July 19, 2005, following the announcement of the retirement of [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|Associate Justice]] [[Sandra Day O'Connor]] on July 1, Bush nominated federal appellate judge [[John Roberts]] to be O'Connor's replacement; however, following the death of Chief Justice [[William Rehnquist]] on September 3, that still-pending nomination was withdrawn on September 5, with Bush instead nominating Roberts to be the next [[Chief Justice of the United States]]. He was confirmed by the Senate on September 29, 2005.<ref name=roll_call_roberts>[https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00245 U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes – Nomination of John Roberts], ''senate.gov''.</ref>

On October 3, 2005, Bush nominated [[White House Counsel]] [[Harriet Miers]] to succeed O'Connor; however, Miers withdrew her nomination on October 27 after encountering significant opposition from both parties, who found her to be ill-prepared and uninformed on the law,<ref name="greenburg" />{{Rp|278}} once again leaving no nominee to replace O'Connor. Finally, on October 31, Bush nominated federal appellate judge [[Samuel Alito]], who was confirmed by the Senate to replace O'Connor on January 31, 2006.<ref>James L. Gibson, and Gregory A. Caldeira, "Confirmation politics and the legitimacy of the US Supreme Court: Institutional loyalty, positivity bias, and the Alito nomination". ''American Journal of Political Science'' 53.1 (2009): 139–155 [https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce/jlgibson/ajps2009.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024235739/https://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce/jlgibson/ajps2009.pdf |date=October 24, 2020 }}</ref>