 Although the importance of regionalism declined , it still arose from time to time . For example , in appointing Benjamin Cardozo in 1929 , President Hoover was as concerned about the controversy over having three New York justices on the Court as he was about having two Jewish justices . David M. O 'Brien notes that " [ f ] rom the appointment of John Rutledge from South Carolina in 1789 until the retirement of Hugo Black [ from Alabama ] in 1971 , with the exception of the Reconstruction decade of 1866 – 1876 , there was always a southerner on the bench . Until 1867 , the sixth seat was reserved as the ' southern seat ' . Until Cardozo 's appointment in 1932 , the third seat was reserved for New Englanders . " The westward expansion of the U.S. led to concerns that the western states should be represented on the Court as well , which purportedly prompted William Howard Taft to make his 1910 appointment of Willis Van Devanter of Wyoming . 
