Republican Presidents have contributed many outstanding Supreme Court Justice from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, from 1902 through 1990.
Ten Justices can be seen as having a very positive impact on the Court, often surprising the Republican Presidents who appointed them, as many could have been appointed by Democratic Presidents in retrospect!
These Justices include:
Oliver Wendell Holmes, appointed by Theodore Roosevelt, and serving from 1902-1932.
Harlan Fiske Stone, appointed by Calvin Coolidge, and serving as Associate Justice from 1925-1941, and then elevated to Chief Justice by Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941-1946.
Charles Evans Hughes, originally appointed by William Howard Taft, and serving as Associate Justice from 1910-1916, resigning to run as the Republican Presidential nominee in 1916, and then, reappointed, now as Chief Justice by Herbert Hoover, and serving from 1930-1941.
Benjamin Cardozo, appointed by Herbert Hoover, and serving from 1932-1938.
Earl Warren, appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and serving as Chief Justice from 1953-1969.
William Brennan, appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, and serving from 1956-1990.
Harry Blackmun, appointed by Richard Nixon, and serving from 1970-1994.
John Paul Stevens, appointed by Gerald Ford, and serving from 1975-2010.
Sandra Day O’Connor, appointed by Ronald Reagan, and serving from 1981-2006.
David Souter, appointed by George H. W. Bush, and serving from 1990-2009.
Any scholarly listing of great Supreme Court Justices would certainly list Holmes, Warren, Brennan, Blackmun, and possibly Stevens in the top ten Supreme Court Justices of all time, a total of 112 Justices in the history of the Supreme Court up to now. And Stone, Hughes, Cardozo, O’Connor, and Souter would all rank in the next ten, making this list part of the top 20 out of the entire list. And Stone, Hughes and Warren served as Chief Justices, arguably the three best Chief Justices, following the greatest Chief Justice of all time, Chief Justice John Marshall (1801-1835)!
All of this above list, except Cardozo, served for a long time, from a low of 16 years for Warren, up to 35 for Stevens, and even Cardozo is rated as being an outstanding Justice, despite his short period on the Court.
So the Republican Party and Presidents, often by misjudgment or error, selected many of the greatest Supreme Court Justices in its history in the 20th century!