Confirmation Bias

Abstract

Supreme Court confirmation hearings are vapid. Supreme Court confirmation hearings are pointless. Supreme Court confirmation hearings are harmful to a citizenry already cynical about government. Sentiments like these have been around for decades and are bound to resurface each time a new nomination is made. This essay, however, takes a different view. It argues that Supreme Court confirmation hearings are a valuable form of cultural expression, one that provides a unique record of, as the theater critic Martin Esslin might say, a nation thinking about itself in public.

Keywords: Supreme Court, Confirmation Hearings, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Sandra Day O'Connor

JEL Classification: K1