“…We build upon that idea by noting a strong theoretical justification for congruity between the appointing president's ideology and the voting behavior of a recently appointed Supreme Court justice. The highly political nature of the appointment process makes this likely, especially under conditions of unified government (Richardson and Scheb ; Sharma and Scheb ). Furthermore, Murphy (, 50) suggests that once on the Court, a newly appointed justice might require “an occasional helping hand—a word of advice can be helpful.” Perhaps this is because, as Justice Clarence Thomas once declared, “in your first five years [on the Court], you wonder how you got there” (Wrightsman , 99).…”