What a difference 17 years and a Senate rules change can make. On July 16, the U.S. Senate confirmed former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronnie White to a seat on the federal bench in the Eastern District of Missouri.

It was the second go-around for White, the first African-American to sit on the Missouri high court in its 175-year history, and a reminder of what some senators recalled as the shameful effort led by then Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., to defeat White’s nomination in 1999.