Slideshow: A History of Modern Supreme Court Nominations

By Gillian Roberts and Meredith Dake-O'Connor

Posted February 14, 2016 at 3:27pm

While Republican leaders in the Senate say they won’t bring a Supreme Court nominee to the floor, President Barack Obama says he plans to nominate someone. Justice Antonin Scalia died at age 79 on Saturday.

Take a look through the most recent high court nominations via CQ Roll Call’s photo archives. And yes, the first one is from 1938 because we couldn’t help ourselves (the original caption called the cameras “both sounds and stills”).

<div style=”display:none”><section><h2>A History in Photos: Supreme Court Nominations</h2><p><div>Shortly after his nomination to the Supreme Court bench by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1938, then U.S. Solicitor General Stanley F. Reed faces this battery of cameras at his office in the Justice Department. The attention focused on nominees continues in modern times. Next is a look through CQ Roll Call’s archive of modern nominations. </div><div>(Photo: Library of Congress)</div></p></section><section><h3>Thomas Nomination</h3><p><div>In October 1991, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas testifies during his hearing before Senate Judiciary. He was confirmed by the Senate later that month.</div><div>(Michael Jenkins/CQ file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Bader Ginsburg Nomination</h3><p><div>Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania sports a hat at the Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Specter had been diagnosed with a non-malignant tumor that required brain surgery. Ginsburg was confirmed in August 1993. </div><div>(CQ Roll Call file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Breyer Nomination</h3><p><div>Newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and then Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., in Biden’s office on Capitol Hill. Breyer was confirmed by the Senate in July 1994. </div><div>(CQ Roll Call file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Roberts Nomination</h3><p><div>Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s casket is brought into the Supreme Court to lie in state for two days on Sept. 6, 2005. That same day, Judge John G. Roberts Jr., (2nd, right side) was nominated to replace him. Roberts was already being considered for associate justice to replace Sandra Day O’Connor.</div><div>(CQ Roll Call file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Roberts Confirmed</h3><p><div>Roberts during his Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing to be chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.&nbsp;The Senate confirmed him Sept. 29, 2005.</div><div>(CQ Roll Call file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Miers Nomination</h3><p><div>Then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., greets Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers at the Capitol. Miers, nominated in October 2005 to replace Justice O’Connor, was withdrawn from Senate consideration by President George W. Bush following Senate opposition. </div><div>(CQ Roll Call file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Alito Nomination</h3><p><div>Samuel A. Alito Jr. testifies at his January 2006 Senate Judiciary hearing to be associate justice of the high court. The Senate confirmed him later that month. </div><div>(Scott J. Ferrell/CQ file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Sotomayor Nomination</h3><p><div>U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor makes her opening statement during her Senate Judiciary nomination hearing in July 2009. She was confirmed by the Senate that August.</div><div>(Scott J. Ferrell/CQ file photo)</div></p></section><section><h3>Kagan Nomination</h3><p><div>Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan meets with then Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., during her first day of meeting with members of the Senate in May 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate in August 2010.</div><div>(CQ Roll Call file photo)</div></p></section></div>

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Slideshow: A History of Modern Supreme Court Nominations

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