Stuart A. Summit

Stuart A. Summit (born April 18, 1936) is an American lawyer, a New York City official, and a federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit whose nomination failed in 1988 due to unexpected opposition by a U.S. senator from his own party.

Early life, education and professional career Summit earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1957 and a law degree from Ohio State in 1959. While in law school, he was elected to the Order of the Coif.

For 12 years, Summit helped two mayors of New York City select judicial appointees, and for another nine years he had screened candidates for the New York Supreme Court as part of his work for the State Commission on Judicial Nominations.

Summit was a partner with the New York City law firm Phillips Nizer LLP in the latter part of his career.

Failed nomination to the Second Circuit On September 23, 1987, toward the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency, Reagan nominated Summit to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to replace Irving Kaufman, who had taken senior status.

Summit's name initially had been suggested by his former law partner, Arnold I. Burns, who had been a Deputy Attorney General at the time.

However, shortly after judiciary committee approval of Summit's nomination, an unknown senator had placed an anonymous "hold" on Summit's nomination, which blocked it indefinitely. Ultimately, it became public that the "hold" had been placed by New York's Republican Sen. Alphonse D'Amato, who had actually introduced Summit to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in April 1988.

"That a single Senator, never mind one who introduced me to the committee, could simply stop the entire process only a few days before my confirmation without having to explain himself to anyone and without the courtesy of explaining himself to me, is simply beyond my understanding," Summit told the New York Times. "It's not in my makeup to be bitter. But no matter how exciting or thrilling my life now is, I will carry a sense of sadness with me. I had visualized myself dying in that job. I'll be grieving, probably all of my life."

After winning the 1988 election, President George H. W. Bush chose not to renominate Summit, and Bush instead selected for that Second Circuit seat his cousin, John M. Walker Jr., who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1989.