Micou’s waning political support and nomination by a lame duck president resulted in the Senate’s failing to confirm his appointment to the Supreme Court.
Micou was born in New Orleans, where he rose to prominence in private practice. A Whig, he was a law partner of President Millard Fillmore. On February 24, 1853, Fillmore appointed Micou to the Supreme Court to replace John McKinley. The Senate, however, took no action to confirm his appointment, as it had done before with Edward A. Bradford. This defeat for the lame duck Fillmore was due at least in part to the Democratic Senate’s unwillingness to stake political capital on a new justice who had waning political support, in particular on the pressing constitutional issue of the time, slavery. In March the new president, Franklin Pierce, a Democrat, appointed John A. Campbell, who was confirmed three days later.
Campbell, John A.
McKinley, John
Nominations to the Court