Speed of Presidential and Senate Actions on Supreme Court Nominations, 1900-2010

R. Sam Garrett
Analyst in American National Government

Denis Steven Rutkus
Specialist on the Federal Judiciary

The speed with which appointments to the Supreme Court move through various stages in the nomination-and-confirmation process is often of great interest not only to all parties directly involved, but, as well, to the nation as a whole. This report provides information on the amount of time taken to act on all Supreme Court nominations occurring between 1900 and the present. It focuses on the actual amounts of time that Presidents and the Senate have taken to act (as opposed to the elapsed time between official points in the process). For example, rather than starting the nomination clock with the official notification of the President of a forthcoming vacancy (e.g., via receipt of a formal retirement letter), this report focuses on when the President first learned of a Justice's intention to leave the Court (e.g., via a private conversation with the outgoing Justice), or received word that a sitting Justice had died. Likewise, rather than starting the confirmation clock with the transmission of the official nomination to the Senate, this report focuses on when the Senate became aware of the President's selection (e.g., via a public announcement by the President). 

The data indicate that the entire nomination-and-confirmation process (from when the President first learned of a vacancy to final Senate action) has generally taken almost twice as long for nominees after 1980 than for nominees in the previous 80 years. From 1900 to 1980, the entire process took a median of 59 days; from 1981 through 2009 (when the most recent Supreme Court appointment was completed), the process took a median of 111.5 days. Although Presidents after 1980 have moved more quickly than their predecessors in announcing nominees after learning of vacancies (a median of 18 days compared with 34 days before 1980), the Senate portion of the process (i.e., from the nomination announcement to final Senate action) now appears to take much longer than before (a median of 80.5 days from 1981 through 2009, compared with 17 days from 1900 through 1980). Most notably, the amount of time between the nomination announcement and first Judiciary Committee hearing has more than quadrupled—from a median of 12.5 days (1900-1980) to 50.5 days (1981-2009). The most recent confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice, that of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, illustrated the lengthier overall time frame for recent Supreme Court appointments. Forty-eight days elapsed between President Barack Obama's announcement of then-Judge Sotomayor's selection and the start of Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination. The entire interval from the time at which the President apparently first learned of the vacancy until final Senate consideration spanned 97 days. 

Most recently, on May 10, 2010, President Obama announced that he would nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the seat being vacated by Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. Hearings are scheduled to begin June 28, 2010. If that schedule unfolds as planned, the interval between the nomination announcement and the start of hearings for Kagan (49 days) would differ by just one day from the interval between nomination announcement and the start of hearings for Judge Sotomayor in 2009 (48 days). Both those periods are close to the median 50.5 days that elapsed between the nomination announcement and the start of hearings for all Supreme Court nominees between 1981 and 2009. As with previous nominations to the Court, the selection process, the Senate schedule, and other factors will affect the timetable that emerges for the next Supreme Court nomination. The Senate may proceed at any pace it deems appropriate after a nominee is announced.


Date of Report: May 28, 2010
Number of Pages: 52
Order Number: RL33118
Price: $29.95

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