Barry J McMillion

Confirmation of U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations During Presidential Election Years Barry J McMillion

This report provides data and analysis related to frequently asked questions about the confirmation of U. S. circuit and district court nominations during presidential election years. Senators with different political views have at different times have spoken of their expectations of a potential drop-off in the confirmation of lower federal court nominees occurring earlier in presidential election years than in other years (and, consequently, the expectation that fewer such nominees would be confirmed in presidential election years). There is, however, no written Senate or Judiciary Committee rule concerning theprocessing of judicial nominations during presidential election years, and the volume and timing of the processing of suchnominations has varied over time. One theme discussed throughout this report is the influence of unified and divided party control in the confirmation of lowerfederal court nominees in presidential election years, as well as in other years. Unified party control occurs when the partyaffiliation of a President is the same as the majority party in the Senate. Conversely, divided party control occurs when thepartisan affiliation of a President is different than the majority party in the Senate. In general, whether unified or dividedparty control exists during a given year likely influences the number and percentage of circuit and district court nomineesconfirmed during that same year. Unified and divided party control does not, however, explain all of the statistics presentedin this report. For example, the greatest number of U. S. circuit court nominees confirmed during a presidential election yearsince 1980 was in 1992 (a year in which there was divided party control). The report includes data from presidential election years and other years during the period 1977 to 2016 (i.e., from the Carter presidency through the Obama presidency). When relevant, data are also presented for the 2017 to 2020 period. Analysis of past data is not presented as being predictive of future activity by the Senate on judicial nominations during presidential election years or other years.