Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Sotomayor In Context: Unprecedented Input From Interest Groups

More than 200 interest groups have submitted testimony in support of Sonia Sotomayor -- eclipsing the next-most-praised Supreme Court nominees 10 times over. Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas had previously shared the record, with 21 interest groups in support of each judge during their nomination.

Just eight groups submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to Sotomayor, compared with 66 filing against Samuel Alito in 2005. The last nominees chosen by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, didn't trigger nearly as much interest group attention: Ruth Bader Ginsburg motivated 10 groups to submit testimony and Stephen Breyer only six.

The chance to put the first Latina on the high court has no doubt contributed to the unusual level of interest, as did Obama's popularity on the left and the Democrats' first chance at a Supreme Court appointment since 1994. But the heightened involvement from interest groups is also a product of convenience: More than they have in the past, groups added their names to joint letters of support, some of which were signed by dozens of organizations. "It's easy to attach themselves to a letter," said Jeffrey Segal, a political science professor at Stony Brook University who compiled the data included in this graph. "There's no cost for them to do that."

The increased politicization of the Supreme Court confirmation process also contributes to the numbers. "It's an easy way for groups to rev up their base and to send out letters asking for support," Segal said. "It becomes a way for these groups to raise their visibility."

Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series examining historical data from a database compiled by Northwestern law professor Lee Epstein and her colleagues.