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Nov. 28, 2005.
Kristy Moon, editor.
All About the U.S. Supreme Court
The Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., the nominee
to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, are
scheduled to begin on January 9, 2006. With two vacancies on the Supreme Court
occurring so close to each other (Judge John G. Roberts was sworn in as the
Chief Justice of the United States in September 2005 to replace the late Chief
Justice William H. Rehnquist), there is quite a renewed interest in the Supreme
Court.
The Law Library has a terrific guide, "Supreme
Court Nominations," which includes information about the recent nominees,
including the unconfirmed, and the nomination and confirmation process.
Book of the Week
The Supreme Court of the United States: Hearings and Reports on Successful
and Unsuccessful Nominations of Supreme Court Justices by the Senate Judiciary
Committee, 1916-1994.
--Mary Whisner
Before Judge John Roberts was confirmed as the Chief Justice of the United
States this summer, there hadn’t been a vacancy on the Supreme Court for ten
years. C-SPAN was around at that time but most of you probably didn’t watch the
hearings then. Even if you were glued to C-SPAN then, history did not begin
with cable, and you might be interested in earlier nominees, too.
This set pulls together all the hearings for all the nominations from 1916
through 1994, starting with the controversial nomination of Louis Brandeis. One
measure of the controversy surrounding Brandeis's nomination is the bulk of the
hearings: they fill three volumes, while the materials for the next seven
justices -- Black, Reed, Frankfurter, Douglas, Murphy, Stone, Jackson -- are
consolidated in just one volume!
In addition to the hearing transcripts, the compilers (Roy M. Mersky, J.
Myron Jacobstein, and others) have provided chronologies, bibliographies, and
reprints of opinions the nominees wrote when they were in lower courts.
This set -- good for browsing or more focused research -- is in the
Classified Stacks, at KF8744 .J8.
By the way, the nine justices who served on the Supreme Court until the
passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist have served together longer than any in
history -- since August 3, 1994, when Justice Breyer took the oath of office.
The period when the membership of the Court remains stable is sometimes called
a "natural court." For a list of all the natural courts since 1789, see Lee
Epstein et al., The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions & Developments
371 (3d ed. 2003), KF8742 .S914 2003 at Reference Office. |
