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Senate Voting on Supreme Court Nominees: A Neoinstitutional Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Charles M. Cameron ,
Albert D. Cover  and
Jeffrey A. Segal
Charles M. Cameron
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Albert D. Cover
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
Jeffrey A. Segal
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
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Abstract

We develop and test a neoinstitutional model of Senate roll call voting on nominees to the Supreme Court. The statistical model assumes that Senators examine the characteristics of nominees and use their roll call votes to establish an electorally attractive position on the nominees. The model is tested with probit estimates on the 2,054 confirmation votes from Earl Warren to Anthony Kennedy. The model performs remarkably well in predicting the individual votes of Senators to confirm or reject nominees. Senators routinely vote to confirm nominees who are perceived as well qualified and ideologically proximate to Senators' constituents. When nominees are less well qualified and are relatively distant, however, Senators' votes depend to a large degree on the political environment, especially the status of the president.

Type
Research Notes
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , June 1990 , pp. 525 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1990

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