Nomination Setting Factors for Nominations from 1953-2020

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President Vacancy Nominee Party Split Senate Support Public Support Vacancy Attributes Nomination Setting
1. Eisenhower Vinson Warren (Wr) 0 78 75 -1 1.21
2.
Jackson Harlan (Hr) 3 85 57 0 1.76
3.
Byrnes Brennan (Bn) -2 79 77 0 2.55
4.
Reed Whittaker (Wk) -1 79 72 0 2.33
5.
Burton Stewart (Sw) -2 50 58 0 -1.73
6. Kennedy Whittaker White (Wh) 28 86 79 0 5.48
7.
Frankfurter Goldberg (Gb) 28 86 66 0 4.28
8. Johnson Goldberg Fortas (F1) 36 93 69 0 5.73
9.
Clark Marshall (Mr) 28 81 51 0 2.43
10.
Warren Fortas (F2) 26 69 43 -1 -0.93
11. Nixon Warren Burger (Bg) -14 76 65 -2 -2.17
12.
Fortas Haynsworth (Hy) -14 76 62 -1 -1.07
13.
Fortas Carswell (Cr) -14 71 61 -1 -1.63
14.
Fortas Blackmun (Bl) -14 71 53 -1 -2.37
15.
Harlan Rehnquist (R1) -10 70 52 0 -0.93
16.
Black Powell (Pw) -10 70 52 0 -0.93
17. Ford Douglas Stevens (Sv) -24 64 41 0 -3.40
18. Reagan Stewart O'Connor (Oc) 7 88 60 0 2.58
19.
Burger Rehnquist (R2) 6 81 64 -1 0.86
20.
Rehnquist Scalia (Sc) 6 81 64 0 2.23
21.
Powell Bork (Bk) -8 56 51 -1 -3.57
22.
Powell Ginsburg, D (Gn) -8 56 49 -2 -5.13
23.
Powell Kennedy (Kn) -8 56 49 -2 -5.13
24. Bush Brennan Souter (Su) -12 63 62 0 -0.79
25.
Marshall Thomas (Th) -14 69 72 -1 -0.80
26. Clinton White Ginsburg, R (Gs) 12 85 37 0 0.49
27.
Blackmun Breyer (By) 12 80 51 0 1.32
28. Bush Rehnquist Roberts (Rb) 10 74 45 -1 -1.24
29.
O'Connor Miers (Mi) 10 67 40 -2 -3.67
30.
O'Connor Alito (Al) 10 67 40 -2 -3.67
31. Obama Souter Sotomayor (So) 20 96 63 0 4.20
32.
Stevens Kagan (Kg) 18 99 49 0 3.08
33.
Scalia Garland (Gd) -8 29 51 -1 -5.05
34.
Scalia Gorsuch (Gr) 4 90 40 -1 -0.64
35.
Kennedy Kavanaugh (Kv) 2 96 40 -3 -2.79
36.
Ginsburg Barrett (Br) 6 94 42 -4 -2.98



Mean 3.03 75.31 55.56 -0.78 0.00



Standard Deviation 14.58 14.46 11.53 0.97 2.60

Notes

  • Party split is the seat advantage in the Senate for the president's party.
  • Senate support is the percentage of votes recorded in the Senate in which the outcome was in accordance with the president's announced position during that session in which the nomination was made.
  • Public support is the percentage of respondents who report a favorable view of the president's job performance in the Gallup public opinion poll closest to the nomination date.
  • Vacancy attributes sums the number of factors attributable to the vacating justice that reduce the favorableness of the setting for the president, as indicated by the use of negative numbers. For any of these vacancy attributes that come into play, add a negative one (-1) into that cell: (a) Chief Justice; (b) female justice; (c) nonAnglo justice; (d) swing vote in major cases; (e) balance of the Court is at stake; (f) outcome can be decided by three votes or fewer along party lines; (g) presidential election year.
  • Nomination setting is the sum of standardized scores across the four setting variables. Standardizing a score is accomplished by subtracting the mean of the distribution from the score and dividing that difference by the standard deviation.
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    Updated on 9/19/20
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