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80 Judicature 274 (1996-1997)
Increasing Senate Scrutiny of Lower Federal Court Nominees

handle is hein.journals/judica80 and id is 276 raw text is: Increasing Senate scrutiny of lower federal court nominees Presidential emphasis on ideology and diversity that began with Carter has led the Senate to act more cautiously in confirming district and appeals court nominees. by Roger E. Hartley - and Usa M. Holmes The appointment process of lower federal court judges has historically never re- ceived as much attention and scrutiny as that of Supreme Court justices. District court and ROGER E. HARTLEY and LISA M. HOLMES are Ph.D. candidates in political science at the University of Georgia. courts of appeals vacancies are more frequent and have been generally considered less important by the president, the Senate, and the pub- lic. All this has begun to change, how- ever. Lower federal court judges are 274 Judicature Volume 80, Number 6 increasingly viewed as having an im- portant policy-making function, and more recent presidents have acted to shape the bench in their policy im- age. The long political life of the lower judiciary is often viewed as an opportunity to indirectly shape pol- icy well after a president leaves Penn- sylvania Avenue. The political visibility of the lower federal judiciary can be traced to the presidency of Richard Nixon, who promised to selectjudges who placed a political emphasis on crime con- trol. Under Jimmy Carter, political emphasis on the lower judiciary heightened because hisjudicial selec- tion plan emphasized appointing mi- norities and judges with a similar ide- ology. This increased presidential at- tention on appointments continued throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. Elliot Slotnick argues that both Carter and Reagan treated their lower courtjudicial selection re- sponsibilities as primary domestic policy making opportunities, and both presidents generated public controversy over the clear ideological A version of this paper was presented at the 1996 Southern Political Science Association meetings in Atlanta, Georgia. The authors thank Garland Allison, Michael Giles, Susan Haire,John Maltese, Susette Talarico, and David Yalof for their insight- tuil comments. The authors contributed equally to this study and are in no particular order. May-June 1997

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