The Good, the Bad and the Federal Courts

The New York Times is reporting today a few bits of information on President Obama’s plan to staff the Federal Judiciary. The President is moving closer to naming, David Hamilton, to be his first nomination for a Federal Appeals Court judge (for the 7th Circuit). I’m not sure where this judge actually stands. Although the Times peeled their lips away from the President’s phallus long enough describe him as a "moderate," they went back suckling by detailing every liberal move Hamilton ever made. A criticism of the President must be combined with stark praise as well. So, in the spirit of that I will do the same.

A President can really screw up when staffing the judiciary. Clinton let a combination of making nominations a low priority and a bitchy and unfriendly Senate Judiciary Committee restrict the number and quality of nominations. Jimmy Carter demanded two qualifications to be appointed to the bench during his tenure: are you a minority or part of an underrepresented group AND are you going to be a terrible addition to the Federal Courts? If you answered yes to both, then you got the job.

Sadly, Republicans are really, really good at appointing judges (except Supreme Court Justices, they kind of suck at that, see Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Sandra Day O’Connor, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens). Hopefully, Obama’s appointment of a “moderate” judge is either phony (and he is a progressive) or not the start of a trend (as MSNBC is reporting). About 2 out of every 3 judges on the federal bench are Republican appointees. We don’t need Master of The Universe and Exalted Ruler of Post-Partisanship Obama to be appointing a bench full of moderates. The longest standing mark of a presidency are his court appointments. I’d rather you appoint a bunch of potheads from Berkeley or a group of hacky-sack enthusiasts from Austin rather than conservatives in "moderate" clothing.

And to channel NYT’s criticism and praise pairing, I will applaud Mr. Obama for bringing back the Bar Association’s ratings of Federal Court nominees to the nomination process. After emo-Bush’s feeling’s were hurt by the group they were banned from the process, and it’s nice to see them being brought back into the fold.

-Ginger