Posted by Jonathan Adler: Obama's Other Judicial Nominations: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_19-2009_07_25.shtml#1248391622
President Obama has a remarkable opportunity to remake the federal appellate bench. As I explained in [1]this article, in a single term President Obama could nominate almost as many circuit judges as President Bush did in two. Indeed, President Obama could have a greater effect on the circuit courts than on the Supreme Court. Yet to accomplish this, the President has to actually make some nominations. To date President Obama has made only [2]five nominations to the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Three of these judges have been [3]reported out of committee; none have been confirmed. Moreover, as [4]David Fontana and Micah Schwartzman note, President Obama's appellate nominees are significantly older than those of his predecessors. This seems like a substantial missed opportunity -- at least thus far. By comparison, President Bush made eleven appellate nominations in May 2001, and several more shortly thereafter. Admittedly, the folks who vet potential judicial nominees have had [5]other things to do, but the Bush folks were also preparing for a potential Supreme Court nomination early in their term (albeit one that did not materialize). I'm not complaining -- as a general matter, I'm more favorably inclined toward Bush's nominees than those President Obama is likely to put forward -- but it is interesting to observe that the Obama Administration could be missing an opportunity to put its stamp on federal appellate courts. Perhaps this is a consequence of trying to do so much, so fast. With the stimulus, health care, cap-and-trade, and everything else, who has time for judges? References 1. http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NjBmNzA4YThiN2YwOWVjODdkMzI1MTBiZWE5NzY1OTQ= 2. http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/nominations111.htm 3. http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/111thCongressJudicialNominations/Materials111thCongress.cfm 4. http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/environmentandenergy/archive/2009/07/23/putting-the-quot-benefit-quot-back-in-cost-benefit.aspx 5. http://www.whitehouse.gov/Sotomayor/ _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
