Conservatives near lock on US courts
Beet:
GOP-appointed judges already control 10 of 13 appeals courts.
By Warren Richey, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
As Democrats and Republicans in Washington prepare for an expected showdown over the use of filibusters to stall judicial nominees, President Bush is already well on his way to recasting the nation's federal appeals courts in a more conservative mold.
Republican appointees now constitute a majority of judges on 10 of the nation's 13 federal appeals courts. As few as three more lifetime appointments on key courts would tip the balance in favor of GOP appointees on all but one appeals court - the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco...
...The regional appeals courts decide more than 63,000 cases each year, while the Supreme Court agrees to hear only 80 to 90 cases per term.
"As the Supreme Court's docket dwindles, the regional circuit courts become even more the Supreme Courts for their regions," says Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law. ...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/csm/20050414/ts_csm/abench&e=5
bullmoose88:
Quote from: the_factor on April 15, 2005, 12:47:34 AM
GOP-appointed judges already control 10 of 13 appeals courts.
By Warren Richey, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
As Democrats and Republicans in Washington prepare for an expected showdown over the use of filibusters to stall judicial nominees, President Bush is already well on his way to recasting the nation's federal appeals courts in a more conservative mold.
Republican appointees now constitute a majority of judges on 10 of the nation's 13 federal appeals courts. As few as three more lifetime appointments on key courts would tip the balance in favor of GOP appointees on all but one appeals court - the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco...
...The regional appeals courts decide more than 63,000 cases each year, while the Supreme Court agrees to hear only 80 to 90 cases per term.
"As the Supreme Court's docket dwindles, the regional circuit courts become even more the Supreme Courts for their regions," says Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law. ...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/csm/20050414/ts_csm/abench&e=5
Republican does not necessarily mean conservative.
GOP appointed does not mean conservative. Take a look at the highest court for proof on that one.
Beet:
There's a discussion of that in the article. It says:
Not every Republican appointee votes conservative. Nor are Democratic appointees automatically liberal. But judicial scholars say that on certain divisive issues, the appointing president can be a reliable indicator of the likely outcome of a case.
...
"Many studies have shown that there are significant differences between Republican and Democratic appointees on many kinds of issues," says Arthur Hellman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Where those ideological differences most often show up, scholars say, is in the kinds of hot-button issues that attract significant public and media attention: abortion, capital punishment, affirmative action, environmental regulation, and discrimination based on race, sex, or disability.
Some legal analysts reject this view, saying it undermines the credibility of the judiciary. "I think it is a mistake to pay too much attention to the political party of the appointing president because that helps create a false impression in the public's mind that judges are and should be political actors," says James Swanson, a senior legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
David Klein, a University of Virginia political science professor, disagrees. He says federal judges have become important policymakers within the US government. "There are going to be major cases where they are making important policy that affects many of us where we can assume that ideology is going to play a role," Professor Klein says.
J.R. Brown:
Quote from: bullmoose88 on April 15, 2005, 12:57:37 AM
Quote from: the_factor on April 15, 2005, 12:47:34 AM
GOP-appointed judges already control 10 of 13 appeals courts.
By Warren Richey, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
As Democrats and Republicans in Washington prepare for an expected showdown over the use of filibusters to stall judicial nominees, President Bush is already well on his way to recasting the nation's federal appeals courts in a more conservative mold.
Republican appointees now constitute a majority of judges on 10 of the nation's 13 federal appeals courts. As few as three more lifetime appointments on key courts would tip the balance in favor of GOP appointees on all but one appeals court - the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco...
...The regional appeals courts decide more than 63,000 cases each year, while the Supreme Court agrees to hear only 80 to 90 cases per term.
"As the Supreme Court's docket dwindles, the regional circuit courts become even more the Supreme Courts for their regions," says Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law. ...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/csm/20050414/ts_csm/abench&e=5
Republican does not necessarily mean conservative.
GOP appointed does not mean conservative. Take a look at the highest court for proof on that one.
It's pretty much split, with O'Connor and Kennedy in the middle. Ironically the most liberal justice was appointed by Gerald Ford.
bullmoose88:
But then you have Souter who's on the moderate left.
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