Confirmation Criteria Revisited:Confirmation Criteria of Judicial Appointments in the Senate JudiciaryCommittee.

Ideology and political maneuvers cloud even the smallest amount of controversy in the confirmation of judicial appointments in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Aside from the rare impeachment of a judge, the Judiciary Committee is the one venue that provides a valuable one-time in-depth check on the quality of lifetime appointments to the judiciary. This small window for a check on the vast power of the judiciary requires continual quantitative analysis to determine the status of the underlying criteria within the Senate Judiciary Committee. This project is aimed at putting forth a model that attempts explanation of varying criteria across congresses, appointees, and Senators on the Judiciary Committee. This study focuses on criteria in the 105th, 106th, and 107th Congresses extending the analysis proposed and applied by Guliuzza (1994). Guliuzza’s confirmation criteria are measured through the content analysis of questions asked by Senators on the Judiciary Committee to nominees to the Supreme Court. This paper applies the same schema to Circuit Court nominees. Questions are coded into three categories. Questions of character, competency, and constitutionalism are used to determine the criteria for confirmation used by the committee. The breakdown of these categories is then used in a multinomial logit to discern if there are effects from the issue positions of Senators, their support of the president’s legislative agenda, and the record of the circuit court to which the nomination is being made. This analysis shows to what extent ideology and political calculations affect the criteria the committee uses to send nominations to the Senate floor for full consideration. The Senate Judiciary Committee becomes an opportunity to frame the debate before the entire Senate begins to address the issue. This analysis does not address specific nominations and the arguments for or against nomination. Instead, this paper looks at how the political and legal landscape affects the criteria Senators use to advise and consent on Circuit Court nominees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]