Judicial Appointments by George W. bush
Petra Robinette
Professor Lunsford
SOC 205

Strayer University
May 5th 2013

Soon after the inauguration of George W. Bush as a president he made aggressive approach to making life time appointments to the federal bench. On March 2001 he announced that he is not going to use the American Bar association to screen candidates for federal bench. This approach have been always used by the presidents since the 1952. May 2001 Bush announced in special white house ceremony his first eleven nominees for court of appeals.
Until the November 2002 when republicans regain back the control over the senate Bushes’ nominations for federal judgeships were blocked by the senate democrats. George W. Bush made 2 key appointments to the Supreme Court. September 2002 Chief justice William Rehniquist dies and John Roberts nominated by George W. Bush wins vote seventy eight to twenty two. In January 2006 Samuel Alita also nominated by Bush gets to replace retiring justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
For the United States courts of appeals George W. Bush appointed 57 judges during his presidency. There is currently 179 judges on the United States Courts of appeals.
George W Bush appointed two hundred thirty seven judges to the Trial courts. According to Nan Aron “So many circuits, whose decisions affect tens of thousands of people, now have republican appointed majorities.”
George W. Bush was appointing nontraditional judges. He appointed more men than women seventy eight percent of men and twenty two percent of women. He also appointed more whites then minorities. He appointed eighty two percent of whites and only eighteen percent of minorities. We didn’t see much of increase under Bush’s administration in numbers African American judges.

According to Spill Salberg the presidents like Regan, Carter, George H. W Bush and George W. Bush often appoints minorities to seats for political gain. Even though Bushes administration was courting the Hispanic vote and he had many of Hispanic conservatives to choose from while filling vacancies, he still chose to appoint traditional candidates. “Bush may care about diversity but it was definitely not one of his priorities” Dasora said. According to new analysis George W. Bush judicial appointments suggests that his motivation for appointing nontraditional judges was driven more by ideology and strategy than concerns for diversity. When you put all the federal judicial appointments made by George W. Bush together and put them in categories. While he made many of diverse appointments specially Hispanics over all during his administration the federal court didn’t gain in numbers of minority judges. Some data indicates that 36 percent of the Bushes decisions concerning the judicial appointments or nominees have been decided in liberal direction. . Bushes legacy of judicial appointments will be far-reaching.

References
Carp, R. A., Stidham, R., Manning, K. L. (2008) Judicial process in America. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Biskupic, J. (2008) Bush's conservatism to live long in the U.S. courts. USA today.
Retrieved May 4th, 2013 from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-13-judges_N.htm

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