Judicial Appointment History For United States Federal Courts
The appointment of federal judges for United States federal courts has become viewed as a political process in the last several decades. This is especially true of U.S. Supreme Court and court of appeals appointments. These charts show the composition of the Supreme and circuit courts at the end of each four year presidential term, categorizing the judges by the presidential term during which they were nominated for their seat.
As of October 2012, a majority of federal appeals courts still had a majority of Republican appointees, reflecting Republican dominance of the presidency in recent times; twenty of the thirty two years between 1980 and 2012 have been spent under Republican presidents. However, the party of the president who appointed a judge is not always a good indicator of that judge's judicial philosophy and place on the political spectrum.
Read more about Judicial Appointment History For United States Federal Courts: Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, Acronym Key
Famous quotes containing the words judicial, appointment, history, united, states, federal and/or courts:
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“America—rather, the United States—seems to me to be the Jew among the nations. It is resourceful, adaptable, maligned, envied, feared, imposed upon. It is warm-hearted, overfriendly; quick-witted, lavish, colorful; given to extravagant speech and gestures; its people are travelers and wanderers by nature, moving, shifting, restless; swarming in Fords, in ocean liners; craving entertainment; volatile. The schnuckle among the nations of the world.”
—Edna Ferber (1887–1968)
“If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,
When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallowed cities up,
And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing, yet let memory
From false to false among false maids in love
Upbraid my falsehood.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Prestige is the shadow of money and power. Where these are, there it is. Like the national market for soap or automobiles and the enlarged arena of federal power, the national cash-in area for prestige has grown, slowly being consolidated into a truly national system.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“And about her courts were seen
Liveried angels robed in green,
Wearing, by St Patrick’s bounty,
Emeralds big as half the county.”
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)