Supreme Court nomination history

A history of Supreme Court nominations reveals it's quite rare for a president's pick to be flat-out rejected by the Senate -- but it does happen...

Earlier today, President Obama announced Merrick Garland as his selection to replace deceased conservative justice Antonin Scalia on the SCOTUS. Garland is widely considered a "moderate" judge. That means he would be in the position of issuing crucial "swing votes" to decide cases.

Even though Garland's not a staunch leftist, President Obama's nomination flies in the face of national Republican leadership, which has demanded the president leave the seat vacant until the next presidency in January 2017.

Our chart shows a history of Supreme Court nominations, by president and year, since 1900, including the few instances where nominations were flat-out denied -- a position Merrick Garland may find himself in very shortly...