List of nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States

To become a Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, an individual must be nominated by the President of the United States and approved by the U.S. Senate, with at least half of that body approving in the affirmative. Generally, a justice's qualifications are judged by the President and, most visibly, by a Senate hearing. There is no definitive qualification of age or experience that is a standard to be met; instead, there is a much more subjective process taken by the Senate, occasionally resulting in a sometimes controversial defeat of judicial nominees.

The following table lists the nominations that were sent by the President to the Senate for the constitutionally required “advice and consent”. They are placed in chronological order by their date of nomination.

* Only nominations which have been formally sent to the Senate are listed here. For example, the nomination of Douglas H. Ginsburg was withdrawn before the official notification had been sent to the Senate, so it is not listed in the table below.
* The “Seat Rank” is either “CJ” for Chief Justice of the United States or “AJ” for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
* When a President nominates an individual to the Supreme Court, he informs the Senate of the nomination via a letter. The “Date of Submission to Senate” is the date of that letter (except for Hugo Black, whose letter was undated).
* The “Result” can be one of six possibilities:
** “no action”, if the Senate session ended without the nomination being brought to the floor for consideration
*** In this case, “Vote” and “Date of Result” should be blank.
** “postponed”, if the nomination was brought to the floor and a vote was taken to defer consideration, but no confirmation vote took place
*** In this case, “Vote” is the result of the vote to postpone and “Date of Result” is the date of that vote.
** “rejected”, if the nominee failed a confirmation vote
*** In this case, “Vote” is the result of the confirmation vote and “Date of Result” is the date of the confirmation vote.
** “confirmed”, if the nominee was confirmed and accepted the confirmation
*** In this case, “Vote” is the result of the confirmation vote and “Date of Result” is the date of the confirmation vote.
** “declined”, if the nominee declined his or her nomination when informed of the nomination
*** If the Senate was informed that the nominee had declined their nomination prior to a confirmation vote, “Vote” is blank and “Date of Result” is the date of that decline. If the Senate held a confirmation vote prior to being informed that the nominee had declined their nomination, “Vote” is the result of the confirmation vote and “Date of Result” is the date of the confirmation vote.
** “withdrawn”, if the nominee accepted their nomination and then the nomination was withdrawn prior to a confirmation vote
*** In this case, “Vote” should be blank and “Date of Result” is the date that the nomination was withdrawn.
* The “Vote” is either “voice vote”, if a count of the yeas and nays was not requested and therefore not recorded, or the tally of the vote.

Notes

#note label|recess|1|anote label|recess|1|bnote label|recess|1|cnote label|recess|1|dnote label|recess|1|enote label|recess|1|fnote label|recess|1|gnote label|recess|1|h Nominee was serving on the Court under a recess appointment when the nomination was made.
#note label|elevation|2|anote label|elevation|2|bnote label|elevation|2|cnote label|elevation|2|d Nominee was a sitting associate justice who was nominated to the Chief Justiceship.
# On June 15, 1844, a move was made to table the nomination. The tally of 27–20 is the result of that motion. The nomination was subsequently withdrawn on June 17.
# On this date a motion was made to consider the nomination, but the motion died without a vote when an objection was made.
# The Senate never considered his nomination. A motion to consider it was rejected by the listed 25-26 vote.
# Stanton was confirmed, but died before he could take office.

References

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