Skip to main content
Duke University Libraries
View Item 
  •   DukeSpace
  • Theses and Dissertations
  • Undergraduate Honors Theses and Student papers
  • View Item
  •   DukeSpace
  • Theses and Dissertations
  • Undergraduate Honors Theses and Student papers
  • View Item
    • Login
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    The Evolution of Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Processes; The Façade of Apolitical Appointments

    Thumbnail
    View / Download
    328.7 Kb
    Date
    2019-03
    Author
    Kerr, MacKenzie
    Advisor
    Vanberg, Georg
    Repository Usage Stats
    64
    views
    25
    downloads
    Abstract
    The nomination and confirmation processes for filling vacancies on the Supreme Court of the United States are a controversial and misunderstood governmental procedure. Statistically presidents have enjoyed success when appointing members of the Court, but it is the appointment process that has been under considerable pressure despite high confirmation rates. The length of time between naming a nomination and senatorial action varies greatly depending on several significant variables that contribute to a politically polarized process. To understand the entirety of the confirmation processes, both a quantitative analysis and case study approach were taken to explain the political incentives that dictate the proceedings of Supreme Court nominations. I find that the condition of divided government, an increased ideological distance between the president and senate majority party, and the nature of a vacancy being a critical nomination all contribute to an extended confirmation process. These results are seen across decades of nominations as I took data beginning in the Post-Civil War 1866 nomination of Henry Stanbery and ended with the 2018 nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This suggests important considerations for the way in which we should analyze and view confirmation processes – not by the end result but by the complete procedure.
    Type
    Honors thesis
    Department
    Political Science
    Subject
    polarization
    divided government
    critical nomination
    confirmation process
    partisan behavior
    ideological gap
    Permalink
    https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18179
    Citation
    Kerr, MacKenzie (2019). The Evolution of Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Processes; The Façade of Apolitical Appointments. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18179.
    Collections
    • Undergraduate Honors Theses and Student papers
    More Info
    Show full item record
    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

    Rights for Collection: Undergraduate Honors Theses and Student papers

     

     

    Search Scope

    Browse

    All of DukeSpaceCommunities & CollectionsAuthorsTitlesTypesBy Issue DateDepartmentsAffiliations of Duke Author(s)SubjectsBy Submit DateThis CollectionAuthorsTitlesTypesBy Issue DateDepartmentsAffiliations of Duke Author(s)SubjectsBy Submit Date

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics