First, apologies for those looking for a substantive diary, or one that actually, you know, complies with the rules of the site. This one doesn't, but I hope all will be forgiving (in the past, I have found this to be an excellent resource for academic questions).
Second, my actually question that I need assistance on- I am teaching an intro level college class that very broadly is about "Law". I can pretty much do whatever I want with it, and I decided, it being timely and all, to spend a class talking about the process of nominating and confirming a Supreme Court Justice, and look at all the nominees since LBJ. Here is the question that I can't seem to get an answer to- at what point does a filibuster become official? Meaning, does it have to succeed for anyone to really take note of it? For example, I distinctly recall a vote for cloture on Alito, but was there one for Sotomayor? And, more importantly, what about the nominees who I can't easily enough pull up a news article about (like the recent ones)- is there a way to see for which nominees there was at least an attempt at a filibuster, even if it failed, and by what margin that it failed?
I certainly appreciate any help. (BTW- I do have the Abe Fortas story covered).
Thank you all. Again, apologizes for those this kind of diary bothers, but on the other hand, why have you read all the way to the bottom?