Thread by @JohnWHuber

A total of 61 SCOTUS justices have been nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court since the turn of the last century (1900)

70% of these (43 Justices) were confirmed in *under 46 days* (the amount of time remaining until the Nov 3 Presidential election)

THREAD

Nominee & days to confirm from nomination:

Lewis Powell —45
Ruth Bader Ginsburg —42
Sandra Day O'Connor —33 (*the vacancy)
Harlan Stone —31
Wiley Rutledge —28
Harry Blackmun —27 (*wrote Roe v Wade)
Arthur Goldberg —25
Robert Jackson —25
John Roberts —23 (*became Chief Justice)

Mahlon Pitney —23
John Paul Stevens —19
Sherman Minton —19
Warren Burger —17 (*became Chief Justice)
Charles Whittaker —17
Tom Clark —16
Pierce Butler —16
Harlan Stone —15 (*became Chief Justice)
William Douglas —15
Abe Fortas —14
Fred Vinson —14 (*became Chief Justice)

Frank Murphy —12
Felix Frankfurter —12
Owen Roberts —11
Charles Hughes —10
Stanley Reed —10
John Clarke —10
James McReynolds —10
Benjamin Cardozo —9
William Moody —9
Byron White —8
Charles Hughes —7 (*became Chief Justice)
Horace Lurton —7

Hugo Black —5
Edward Sanford —5
William Day —4
Joseph Lamar —3
Willis Devanter —3
Oliver Holmes —2
Harold Burton —1

James Byrnes —0
George Sutherland —0
William Taft —0 (*became Chief Justice)
Edward White —0

(Yes, four SCOTUS Justices had SAME DAY nominations and confirmations by the Senate. And Byrnes never even attended law school before FDR put him on the court)

For full context, the 18 Justices that took longer than 46 days from nomination to confirmation by the Senate, since 1900:

Loius Brandeis —125
Potter Stewart —108
Clarence Thomas —99
William Rehnquist —89 (*became Chief Justice)
Brett Kavanaugh —88
Elena Kagan —87

Antonin Scalia —85
Samuel Alito —82
Thurgood Marshall —78
Stephen Breyer —73
David Souter —69
Sonia Sotomayor —66
Neil Gorsuch —65
Anthony Kennedy —65
John Harlan —65
William Brennan —64
William Rehnquist —49
Earl Warren —49 (*became Chief Justice)

While the nomination time between now & the Nov 3 election is admittedly short given modern Senate gridlock, from a constitutional and historical perspective, 46 days is plenty.

Both Ginsburg and the Justice Ginsburg replaced were nominated and confirmed in less than that

/ENDS

Source: Senate records for SCOTUS nominations, 1789 to the Present.
senate.gov/legislative/no…