Monday, October 19, 2009

Obama Pulls His Punches On Judicial Nominees

This article from Jonathan H. Adler raises a very interesting question: Why has Obama been so slow to nominate Judges to the federal bench? Preoccupation with other pressing matters?

"The Washington Post reports that liberal activists are upset that President Obama has yet to place his stamp on the federal courts.  The Administration has been very slow to make judicial nominations and has not spent much political capital to get its nominees confirmed.

As of last week, President Obama had only made 26 nominations to the federal courts, only three of which had been confirmed (including Justice Sonia Sotomayor).  By comparison, President Bush had made nearly 100 judicial nominations by this point in his first year.  As noted before, President Obama’s appellate nominees have also been somewhat older than those of his predecessors, and despite much talk of the need for nominees from “outside the box” nearly all of his appellate nominees are sitting judges.  [For lists and data on Obama's nominees see here and here.]"

That Obama has nominated far fewer judges, and ones that are both older and with current judicial experience, took me by surprise.  So far at least, there hasn't been a rapid and wholesale attempt to re-brand the judicial branch with Obama's domestic activism.  That may well change soon enough as the article points out.  But I am encouraged by this deliberate process to date (h/t Instapundit).

No comments:

Post a Comment