It's been more than 400 days since Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death left his seat vacant. With Republicans having blocked a vote on then-President Barack Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, and with Senate Democrats now making plans to filibuster President Donald Trump's nominee, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, it could take even longer to replace Scalia.
It's not unheard of for a justice's seat to remain empty for a considerable period of time. Pew Research Center did the math and found that the longest gap was 841 days, in the mid-1840s, from the time of Henry Baldwin's death to his replacement Robert Grier's confirmation.
But the last time in recent history that a vacancy's duration in this range occurred was after Abe Fortas resigned in 1969. It took 391 days to fill that seat, an interval that ended in 1970 when Harry Blackmun _ the justice who authored the court's landmark opinion in Roe v. Wade _ was confirmed. Blackmun was Richard Nixon's third pick to fill that seat.
The second-longest vacancy in recent years occurred in 1988. It took 237 days to fill Lewis Powell's seat after he retired, with Anthony Kennedy succeeding him.
It's been 58 days and counting since Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch. Here's how his waiting time from nomination to confirmation stacks up against the current justices:
Elena Kagan: 87 days
Sonia Sotomayor: 66 days
Samuel A. Alito Jr.: 82 days
John G. Roberts Jr.: 23 days
Stephen G. Breyer: 73 days
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 50 days
Clarence Thomas: 99 days
Anthony M. Kennedy: 65 days
If Gorsuch is confirmed soon, he won't start considering cases until the court's new term in October.
And if he's not confirmed? Trump would nominate another successor to Scalia _ there's no limit on how many times he can do that. Until Scalia's seat is filled, lower courts' decisions serve as tie-breakers.
