John J. Parker

President Herbert Hoover nominated Parker, a North Carolina judge, in 1930. His candidacy quickly became contentious: labor organizations objected because of an opinion the judge had submitted backing "yellow dog" contracts, in which employees agree not to join unions as a precondition of being hired. The NAACP, meanwhile, decried Parker's opposition to black suffrage, an argument he made during a failed 1920 gubernatorial campaign. His nomination was defeated by a razor-thin 41-39 vote.

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