The Senate's confirmation vote of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to become the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court was the most partisan in modern history. The 50-48 tally continues a trend in which confirmations have devolved into strict party-line votes.

While political pundits spent months pondering over whether centrist or independent-minded Republicans--Maine's Susan Collins, Arizona's Jeff Flake, Tennessee's Bob Corker, and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski--would vote against Kavanaugh, only Murkowski broke ranks by abstaining. Things were no different on the opposite end of the aisle. Of the Red-State Democrats--Montana’s Jon Tester, Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp, and West Virginia's Joe Manchin III--thought to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis, only Manchin, up for election in a state that gave Donald Trump his second largest margin of victory in the 2016 presidential election, switched sides.

The party-line votes are the culmination of a trend begun in 2005 when 22 senators broke ranks to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. Of the five subsequent nominations, no more than nine senators have voted against their party's position.