What is the youngest age that a supreme court nominee could be and get confirmed to the court?
Probably ~37 or so, you don't want the nominee open to accusations that they've spent too short a time (<~12 years) accruing meaningful legal experience. Even still, though, a nominee in their 30s would still get people saying they're too young; it just depends on whether or not their experience up 'til then actually bears that out.
Are you surprised that nominees have stayed around the 50 age bracket, especially after Thomas was confirmed to the court at 43.
Not really, Thomas being nominated so young could arguably just be considered a relative aberration like the Bork nomination's utter & complete implosion was.
Is there a possibility of anyone beating Douglas who was 40 when confirmed? You have to go back to before the civil war to beat Douglas.
If a Republican were to take back the White House in 2025, then I could see current district judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle nominated on a time-scale akin to Thomas' upward mobility: nominated to the 11th or D.C. Circuit in the 1st year of the presidency, then tapped for SCOTUS in the 2nd. Even if she had to wait to be nominated 'til just before the 2026 midterms like Kavanaugh was in 2018, she'd still only be 39.
While we all new Barrett was the odds-on favourite for the Ginsburg seat, if Trump had nominated judge Rushing who was only 38, would she have been confirmed without a problem.
Yes, because party over country, though in such an instance, I could see somebody like Romney doing something akin to what Murkowski had already done in real life & saying that although he wouldn't have nominated somebody quite so young, he'd still vote to confirm since the nomination was already made (so the vote's gonna be held anyway) & perhaps because the quality of the confirmation process had led him to consider the nominee to be qualified too.
