<P> Not everyone nominated by the President has received a floor vote in the Senate . Prior to 2017 a nominee could be filibustered once debate on the nomination had begun in the full Senate . A filibuster indefinitely prolongs the debate, preventing a final vote on the nominee . President Lyndon Johnson's nomination of sitting Associate Justice Abe Fortas to succeed Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1968 was the first successful filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee . It included both Republican and Democratic senators concerned with Fortas's ethics . President Donald Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia's death was the second . Unlike the Fortas filibuster, however, only Democratic Senators voted against cloture on the Gorsuch nomination, citing his perceived conservative judicial philosophy, and the Republican leadership's prior refusal to take up Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy . The Republican majority then changed the rules to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations . </P> <P> Not every Supreme Court nominee has received a floor vote in the Senate . A president may withdraw a nomination before an actual confirmation vote occurs, typically because it is clear that the Senate will reject the nominee; this occurred most recently with the nomination of Harriet Miers in 2006 before Committee hearings had begun, citing concerns about Senate requests during her confirmation process for access to internal Executive Branch documents resulting from her position as White House Counsel . In 1987, President Ronald Reagan withdrew the nomination of Douglas H. Ginsburg because of news reports containing marijuana use allegations . </P> <P> The Senate may also fail to act on the nomination, which expires at the end of the session . For example, President Dwight Eisenhower's first nomination of John Marshall Harlan II in November 1954 was not acted on by the Senate; Eisenhower re-nominated Harlan in January 1955, and Harlan was confirmed two months later . Most recently, the Senate failed to act on President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland in March 2016 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia; the nomination expired in January 2017, and the vacancy was later filled by President Donald J. Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch . </P> <P> Before 1981 the approval process of Justices was usually rapid . From the Truman through Nixon administrations, Justices were typically approved within one month . From the Reagan administration to the present, however, the process has taken much longer . According to the Congressional Research Service, the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote since 1975 is 67 days (2.2 months), while the median is 71 days (or 2.3 months). Some believe this is because Congress sees Justices as playing a more political role than in the past . The perceived politicization of the process has drawn criticism . For example, columnist George F. Will termed the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination "unjust" and, more generally, that the nomination process does "not delve deeply into the nominee's jurisprudential thinking ." Supreme Court nominations have caused media speculation about whether the judge leans to the left, middle, or right . One indication of the politicized selection process is how much time each nominee spends being questioned under the glare of media coverage; before 1925, nominees were never questioned; after 1955, every nominee has been required to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee and answer questions; and the hours spent being grilled have lengthened from single digits (before 1980) to double digits today . </P>

When nominating a justice to the supreme court presidents