The Politicization of the Supreme Court Justices : Has the content of the nomination hearings changed?
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The research topic of this thesis is the nomination process of the Justices for the Supreme Court of the
United States. The political orientation of Supreme Court Justices has been contemplated by the
public, so in this thesis I investigate whether such a shift towards a more political direction is evident
in the research material. As the primary source for my work, I use the transcripts of the confirmed
Supreme Court Justices’ confirmation hearings, starting from 1971. The focus will be on the questions
from the members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary posed to each justice nominee. The
Committee consist of 21 senators from both political parties. The research question is if and how the
content of the hearings has changed since the 1970s. The goal is to analyze the transcripts using
discourse analysis, to determine if there has been a shift in the content of the hearings and if the use of
the hearings for political purposes has been more prevalent at certain times.
The key findings are that there were a few different kinds of changes throughout the timespan of the
research, varying from inevitable reasons to other reasons, which were more affected by party politics.
Inevitable reasons included, for instance, changes in the composition of the Committee of the
Judiciary between the hearings. Other reasons included political and ideological factors, such as the
nominee’s leaning towards a more liberal or conservative legal philosophy, which affected some
senators’ attitudes. Changes in the language and rhetoric can be observed to shift towards more formal
and less polite over time. The most significant change was observed in 2017 and after, following the
rejection of the nomination process of President Obama’s last nominee Judge Garland.
With this research, it cannot be concluded that the observed changes in the hearings directly
contributed to the justices’ becoming more politically aligned. However, it does not exclude the
possibility that other elements have influenced the justices, and it is possible that their objectivity has
wavered over time. Further research on the topic would be beneficial, as the topic of the possible
politization of a judicial branch remains relevant.