ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Posted in Senate Rules — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

On April 2, the Associated Press reported this:

The Senate has confirmed 204 of the president's 214 trial and appellate judicial nominees.

"Gee," you might say, "that sure is a high confirmation rate." But you'd be wrong. Those numbers include trial court judges in addition to appeals court judges, whereas the Dems have only been going after the latter. On April 15, the Associated Press more accurately reported this:

Democrats blocked 10 of Bush's first-term appeals court nominations through filibuster threats while allowing the confirmation of 34. Bush has renominated seven of the 10.

Here are the appellate confirmation rates of all the presidents since FDR:

Truman 81.8%
Eisenhower 90.2%
Kennedy/Johnson 89.7%
Nixon/Ford 89.1%
Carter 91.8%
Reagan 81.3%
G.H.W. Bush 77.8%
Clinton 61.3%
G.W. Bush 51.5%

The nominees of George W. Bush have been no more conservative than those of Ronald Reagan, according to Professors Cass R. Sunstein and David Schkade:

Remarkably, there are no significant differences among the voting records of Reagan, Bush I and Bush II appointees. The three most recent Republican presidents have shown extraordinary consistency in their choices.

The enormous discrepancy in the appellate confirmation rates of Reagan (81.3%) and Bush II (51.5%) is mainly attributable to one thing: the filibuster.

UPDATE: The most authoritative statistics seem to be from the following two sources:

Judicial Nomination Statistics: U.S. District and Circuit Courts, 1977-2003.

Judicial Nomination Statistics: U.S. District and Circuit Courts, 1945-1976.