in to the White House to meet with President Bartlet. While Toby is waiting with Mulready in the Roosevelt Room, the two argue over the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, and when Lang joins the conversation, she informs Toby that Mulready was merely "yanking [his] chain", as Mulready was already opposed to the law because it was an overreach of federal power over the states. Mulready and Lang begin to debate on a second topic, but Mulready is then brought into the Oval Office. Mulready is unimpressed by Bartlet's inclination to nominate Brad Shelton, quipping that "in the event that Carmine, Lafayette, Hoyte, Clark, and Brannigan all drop dead, the center will still be well tended." 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 lain 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. Cast Reaction and influence Reception for the episode was mixed. In 2016, Brian Lowry with Variety likened the 2004 episode to the then-current controversy around the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the nomination of Merrick Garland, citing it as an example of how a President and Senate of opposed parties could work out their differences. Lowry, however, also dismissed the plot as unrealistic, along with the praiseworthy notion that characters who disagreed politically could act out of ideological principle. Lisa McElroy with Slate also compared "The Supremes" to Garland and Scalia in an article entitled "This West Wing Episode Predicted the Controversy Around Scalia's Replacement in Eerie Detail", noting that various quotes from the episode could be read as tributes to Scalia's memory instead of Brady's despite Scalia's death occurring twelve years afterward. McElroy covers some of the episode sarcastically, writing that the White House senior staff are "our Sorkin-created superheroes... They might not be able to keep the president from getting MS, or his daughter from getting kidnapped, but this Supreme Court maneuver? All in a day's work." However, she does praise the debate scene between Lang and Mulready, noting that both participants seemed to gain knowledge and insight from the conversation