CRIV CONNECTION

Author: Deanna Barmakian, Foreign, Comparative & International Law Research & Student Services Librarian, Harvard Law School Library

Judicial confirmations have been in the news lately. The following sources are useful for tracking and researching federal judicial vacancies, nominations, and confirmations. This post includes a selection of public and subscription resources.

Vacancies & Nominations

The U.S. Courts track current federal judicial vacancies providing the reason for the vacancy and the current nominee, if any, for the judgeship. Ballotpedia provides detailed vacancy data by geographic region and court along with confirmation process tracking. Law360’s Guide to Trump’s Judicial Picks is another good option to track vacancies and nomination status. Finally, the Senate Judiciary Committee (“SJC”) maintains a judicial nominations page with summary information and status tracking.

Confirmation Hearings

With the confirmation hearing date from the tracking sources above, use the SJC’s nomination hearing calendar to locate videos of the hearing along with the nominee’s completed questionnaire and letters of support.

Several sources offer transcripts of confirmation hearings. ProQuest Congressional hearing records (ProQuest vendor brochure) include nominee statements, written replies to Committee questions, and correspondence. The easiest way to access confirmation hearings is to use the advanced search template and enter the nominee in the witness/panelist field.

For transcripts of nomination hearings too recent to appear in ProQuest, CQ Transcriptions on Lexis or Political Transcript Wire on Westlaw are good options.

For U.S. Supreme Court nominees, there is excellent access to confirmation materials in HeinOnline’s specialty module: History of Supreme Court Nominations (HeinOnline vendor brochure). It covers over one hundred nominated Justices, including those unconfirmed. Content for each judge varies but usually includes confirmation hearing transcripts, selections from their writings, selected opinions from their service on lower courts, and answers to questionnaires.