Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Replacing a justice on the Supreme Court takes time. A lot of time.

Brett Kavanaugh, who went through Senate confirmation hearings in September,

was nominated by President Trump

just after the 4th of July.

But it could be October before the Senate makes their decision, or even longer, because of sexual

assault allegations that emerged just before a key vote.

On the extreme end, it took over two years

to replace Justice Henry Baldwin

after his death in 1844.

That's because Congress refused to vote

on any of then President John Tyler's nominees.

Something similar happened to President Barack Obama, when Republicans refused to take up his

nominee near the end of his term.

But there was one time when the confirmation process went quickly, the first time when

George Washington was president.

It only took days for all of the nominees to be appointed and confirmed to the court.

Of course, there wasn't wall-to-wall cable TV news coverage back then, and it wasn't until a

decade later that the court was empowered to take up the weighty constitutional questions

it is known for deciding today.

Washington nominated the first Supreme Court justices moments after Congress passed

the Judiciary Act of 1789 in September of that year.

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