Republicans claim that no nominee to the Supreme Court has ever been filibustered, at least in the sense of being denied an up-or-down vote that he could win. Most Democrats argue that Republicans filibustered President Johnson’s nomination of Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court. It turns out that the facts of that case are not so simple. Senator John Cornyn argues against the Democratic view on pp. 38-43 of this article. Norm Ornstein did a column for Roll Call disputing the Republican analysis of the Fortas episode, but to my mind did not address the range of evidence that Senator Cornyn adduces. This may seem rather academic right now, but I’m sure it will come up if there’s a Supreme Court vacancy in 2005.