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The Role Of Legal Scholars In The Confirmation Hearings For Supreme Court Nominees—Some Reflections, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Until recently legal scholars have traditionally not been much involved in the process of confirming Justices. As the legal and political ideology of prospective Justices have come to play an important role in the process of nomination and confirmation, however, it is perhaps inevitable that legal scholars would also become more involved. At least since the nomination of Judge Bork, legal scholars have contributed in unprecedented numbers both to the Senate's deliberation process and to the public debate over the fitness of the nominees to the Court. The Bork hearings themselves were, of course, the watershed, and they remain, for …