It's actually kind of a recent idea that in order to judge a nominee, you had to have tons and tons of paper, ... For most of history it was, you know, someone's nominated, probably a friend of the president ... You had hearings, and in the hearings you asked some questions, and the questions gave you the answers, and that was it. No one asked about how you were going to rule in Roe v. Wade, how you were going to rule in Miranda, whatever.

Richard Garnett