The green bars show the lengths of all of the Supreme Court vacancies since the Civil War in days. The blue bar shows the amount of time that the seat left empty by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia would likely remain empty if the Republicans in the Senate refuse to confirm any judge nominated by President Obama. The light blue portion of the blue bar represents the remainder of President Obama’s term and the dark blue portion indicates the average time it takes to nominate and confirm a Supreme Court Justice.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vow to block any SCOTUS nomination by President Barack Obama would be unprecedented since the Civil War.
The only vacancy since the Civil War to last longer than 300 days was after Justice Abe Fortas’s resignation when it took 391 days for Justice Harry Blackmun to join the court in 1970. That happened after Nixon’s first choice declined the offer and the next two nominees, advocates of racial segregation, were rejected by the Senate.