1||June 29, 2010: The Senate Judiciary Committee kicks off its hearings to confirm Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Here’s a look back at other great moments in Supreme Court history, from confirmation hearings to swearings-in. Here, Sandra Day O’Connor is sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice by Chief Justice Warren Burger on September 25, 1981. Her husband, John O’Connor, holds the bible.||Newscom/National Archives/MCT&&
2||1920s: Chief Justice William Howard Taft, with President Warren G. Harding and former Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln.||Wikimedia Commons&&
3||1954: Attorneys George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit rejoice outside the Supreme Court after the decision ruling out school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education. ||Newscom/Zuma&&
4||April 29, 1970: Harry A. Blackmun, center, before his confirmation hearings begin. Blackmun was nominated by President Nixon, and was later confirmed on May 12, 1970. To his left is Sen. Walter Mondale (D-MN), and to his right Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-MN). ||Newscom/Arnie Sachs / CNP &&
5||November 4, 1971: Lewis Powell during his confirmation hearing. ||Newscom/UPI&&
6||December 1975: President Gerald Ford, Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, and Justice John Stevens.||Newscom/UPI&&
7||July 15, 1981: President Ronald Reagan and O’Connor at the White House.||Wikimedia Commons&&
8||July 29, 1986: Supreme court nominee William Rehnquist talks to senators at his confirmation hearing. ||Newscom/Zuma&&
9||September 26, 1986: Rehnquist is sworn in as Chief Justice by his predecessor, Burger. Justice Antonin Scalia and his wife, left, and President Reagan, right, look on.||Wikimedia Commons&&
10||September 15, 1987: Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), left, listens as Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), right, gives his opening statement against the nomination of Judge Robert Bork. ||Newscom/Arnie Sachs / CNP&&
11||October 9, 1987: Bork, right, in the Oval Office with President Reagan, who nominated him to the Supreme Court.||Newscom/White House / CNP&&
12||1987: Anthony Kennedy at his confirmation hearings. ||Newscom/Zuma&&
13||July 24,1990: Supreme Court nominee David Souter with Ted Kennedy. ||Newscom/Zuma&&
14||October 11, 1991: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) talks with Senate Judiciary Chair Biden and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) before the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing. ||Newscom/DDP&&
15||October 1991: CThomas during his confirmation hearing.||Newscom/DDP&&
16||1993: Sen. Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Biden during a press conference in Biden’s office on Capitol Hill.||Newscom/RollCall&&
17||1994: Stephen Breyer during his confirmation hearing.||Newscom/SC&&
18||September 15, 2005: John Roberts prepares to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the fourth day of his confirmation hearings. ||Newscom/UPI&&
19||January 11, 2006: Samuel Alito, Jr. sits before U.S. Senators during his third day of confirmation hearings.||Newscom/SHNS&&
20||September 8, 2009: President Obama talks with Justice Sonia Sotomayor prior to her investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court.||Official White House Photo by Pete Souza&&
