Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T13:23:51.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Senate Voting on Supreme Court Nominees: A Neoinstitutional Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

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

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
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraham, Henry. 1974. Justices and Presidents. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baum, Lawrence. 1981. The Supreme Court. Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Blaustein, Albert P., and Mersky, Roy M.. 1978. The First One Hundred Justices. Hamden, CT: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Cameron, Charles, Albert, Cover, and Jeffrey, Segal. 1989. “The Puzzle of Roll Call Voting on Supreme Court Nominees: A Neoinstitutional Analysis.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Cole, Kenneth C. 1934. “The Role of the Senate in Confirmation of Judicial Nominations.” American Political Science Review 28: 875–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danelski, David J. 1964. A Supreme Court Justice Is Appointed. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Denzau, Arthur, Riker, William, and Shepsle, Kenneth. 1985. “Farquharson and Ferino: Sophisticated Voting and Home Style.” American Political Science Review 79: 1117–34.Google Scholar
Dodd, Lawrence C. 1985. “Congress and the Quest for Power.” In Studies of Congress, ed. Parker, Glenn R.. Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Enelow, James M., and Hinich, Melvin J.. 1982. “Nonspatial Candidate Characteristics and Electoral Competition.” Journal of Politics 44: 115–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enelow, James M., and Hinich, Melvin J.. 1984. The Spatial Theory of Voting: An Introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Enelow, James M., Hinich, Melvin J., and Mendell, Nancy. 1986. “An Empirical Evaluation of Alternate Spatial Models of Elections.” Journal of Politics 48: 675–93.Google Scholar
Felice, John D., and Weisberg, Herbert F.. 19881989. “The Changing Importance of Ideology, Party, and Region in Confirmation of Supreme Court Nominees, 1953–88.” Kentucky Law Journal 77: 509–31.Google Scholar
Fenno, Richard. 1973. Congressmen in Committees. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Fenno, Richard. 1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1974. Representatives, Roll Calls, and Constituencies. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.Google Scholar
Friedman, Richard D. 1983. “The Transformation in Senate Response to Supreme Court Nominations: From Reconstruction to the Taft Administration and Beyond.” Cardozo Law Review 5: 195.Google Scholar
Grossman, Joel B., and Wasby, Stephen L.. 1972. “The Senate and Supreme Court Nominations: Some Reflections.” Duke Law Journal 1972: 557–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Joseph P. 1953. The Advice and Consent of the Senate. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kingdon, John W. 1981. Congressmen's Voting Decisions. 2d ed. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith. 1988. “Spatial Models of Legislative Choice.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 13: 259321.Google Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith, and Rivers, Douglas. 1985. “Congressional Roll Call Voting Strategies: Applications of a New Test to Minimum Wage Legislation.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith, and Rivers, Douglas. 1988. “The Analysis of Committee Power: An Application to Senate Voting on the Minimum Wage.” American Journal of Political Science 32: 1151–74.Google Scholar
Krippendorff, Klaus. 1980. Content Analysis. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew D., and Sullivan, Terry, eds. 1987. Congress: Structure and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McHargue, Daniel. 1949. “Appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States: The Factors That Have Affected Appointments, 1789–1932.” Ph.D. diss. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Neustadt, Richard E. 1960. Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Charles W. Jr., and Simon, Dennis M.. 1985. “Promise and Performance: A Dynamic Model of Presidential Popularity.” American Political Science Review 79: 334–58.Google Scholar
Palmer, Jan. 1983. “Senate Confirmation of Appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court.” Review of Social Economy 41: 152–62.Google Scholar
Rohde, David, and Spaeth, Harold. 1976. Supreme Court Decision Making. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Schmidhauser, John R. 1979. Judges and Justices. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Scigliano, Robert. 1971. The Supreme Court and the Presidency. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A. 1987. “Senate Confirmation of Supreme Court Justices: Partisan and Institutional Politics.” Journal of Politics 49: 9981015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Cover, Albert D.. 1989. “Ideological Values and the Votes of Supreme Court Justices.” American Political Science Review 83: 557–65.Google Scholar
Songer, Donald R. 1979. “The Relevance of Policy Values for the Confirmation of Supreme Court Nominees.” Law and Society Review 13: 927–48.Google Scholar
Warren, Charles. 1923. The Supreme Court in United States History. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Weaver, R. Kent. 1986. “Automatic Government: The Politics of Indexation.” Brookings Institution. Typescript.Google Scholar
Wright, Gerald, and Berkman, Michael. 1986. “Candidates and Policy in United States Senate Elections.” American Political Science Review 80: 567–88.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.