Bury Me Broken

Bush Judicial Appointees Already Impacting

According to an AP story by Nancy Benac, President Bush appointees are the most conservative of the past seven presidents according to University of Houston political scientist Robert A. Carp:

On these matters, Bush's district judgeships were rated 28 percent liberal in Carp's study. That put them well to the right of jurists appointed by Presidents Nixon, at 38 percent, and Ford, at 40 percent, and slightly to the right of Reagan and the first President Bush, both of whom were rated 32 percent liberal.

Furthermore, with Reagan and both Bushes appointing justices outweighing the appointments of Clinton and with the present administration over the course of the next four years set to replace Clinton appointees, the ideological balance has considerably shifted.

By the end of his second term, Bush could eclipse Presidents Clinton and Reagan in the number of judges selected — and leave an ideological imprint on the courts for generations to come.

Since 1968, when Nixon was elected, Republican presidents have appointed 1,040 judges; Democrats have named 625. While many of the Bush appointees are replacing jurists named by previous Republican presidents, toward the end of his term Bush could have more opportunities to replace some of the Clinton judges, which would have even greater impact.

The cumulative effect, said political scientist Donald Songer of the University of South Carolina, is that "the last three Republican presidents' nominees control virtually the whole judiciary."

posted by niteskolar @ 12:10 AM