The Supremes (The West Wing)

The end of the previous episode announced the death of Owen Brady, a fifty-two year old justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the current episode, the White House senior staff works to find a replacement for Brady, taking interviews with judges who are considered potential nominees to fill the seat. Josh and Toby Ziegler take a meeting with Evelyn Baker Lang, a liberal court of appeals judge, although Lang is not a serious potential candidate; she was brought in as a diversion to scare the Republican Senate majority into confirming a more moderate nominee.

However, Josh is impressed by his meeting with Lang, in which she correctly deduces the meeting's role as a political tactic and demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Josh wants to put Lang on the court, but after she discloses that she had a legal abortion, the senior staff hesitates, fearing that nominating her would be harmful to both her image and the president's.

Josh, inspired by a story Donna Moss told him, proposes a strategy to Toby; Lang will be nominated to be the first female Chief Justice, replacing the aging incumbent Roy Ashland, in exchange for letting Republicans fill Brady's seat with one of their own. Toby disagrees, arguing that the White House could potentially select its own candidates for both seats if Ashland dies; Josh reminds him that both candidates would then be moderates, not true liberals.

Josh and Toby go to Ashland to propose the idea; he skeptically agrees. Senate Republicans give Josh the name Christopher Mulready as the committee's choice for Brady's seat; Toby immediately objects, citing Mulready's extreme conservative positions. Bartlet is similarly unreceptive. After some time, though, Toby comes back into Josh's office, expressing reluctant support for his plan.

Mulready and Lang are brought in to the White House to meet with President Bartlet. In the Oval Office, Mulready argues that "the Court was at its best when Brady was fighting Ashland", and when Bartlet responded that moderation has created good law in the past, Mulready counters that ideology and principle have laid the foundation for future shifts in perspective from the Court. Bartlet, impressed, agrees to nominate both Mulready and Lang to the Supreme Court. The final scene depicts the White House press corps giving a standing ovation as Bartlet announces his nominees.