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Resources: Reports on the Judiciary
State of the Judiciary: Judicial Selection At the Beginning of President Obama’s Second Term
As President Obama’s second term begins in earnest, there is room for hope that the Administration and the Senate will finally be able to make some headway in reducing the historic backlog of unfilled judicial vacancies. The President has, over the last year, significantly increased his nomination pace, putting pressure on the Senate to act to confirm his nominees. Moreover, the Senate has recently changed its rules to allow for the swifter consideration of district court nominees, potentially allowing for an easier confirmation process. Read More »
Progressive Values in the Balance: Previewing the 2012-2013 Supreme Court Term
In recent years, the Supreme Court has decided numerous highly controversial cases, often by 5-4 margins, which have served to roll back the clock on decades of progressive jurisprudence. This term could bring more of the same. The Supreme Court 2012-2013 term is already packed with cases with the potential to restrict corporate accountability and limit everyday Americans’ civil rights and access to justice. Moreover, the Court may also agree to consider challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, California’s Proposition 8, and the Voting Rights Act. In short, the Court’s decisions this term could have disastrous consequences for the ability of consumers, victims of discrimination, human rights plaintiffs, and others to get a fair day in court. Read More »
Unfinished Business: Judicial Selection During the Remainder of the Obama Presidency
As President Obama finishes his first term and looks forward to his second, the cumulative effects of Republican senators’ ceaseless obstruction of judicial nominees is evident: the President will complete his fourth year in office with more vacancies and judicial emergencies than when he was inaugurated and with far fewer confirmations than his two predecessors had at the end of their first terms. In short, while the President has enjoyed some major judicial selection victories—most notably his appointments to the Supreme Court—his first term has largely been a missed opportunity to fully staff the lower federal courts. Given the current situation, the President has a significant amount of unfinished business to complete during the remainder of his presidency. Read More »
The State of the Judiciary: Judicial Selection During the Remainder of President Obama's First Term (May 2012)
As President Obama nears the home stretch of his first term, the cumulative effects of Republican senators’ ceaseless obstruction of judicial nominees and election-year politics will likely mean that President Obama will finish his first term with more vacancies and judicial emergencies than when he took office and with far fewer confirmations than his two predecessors had at the end of their first terms. This will be the case even if the Senate confirms several dozen nominees over the remainder of the Congress. Read More »
2011-12 End of Term Report
The 2011-12 U.S. Supreme Court term will be best remembered for the Court’s landmark ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), in which it upheld the constitutionality of the Act but opened the door to placing future limits on Congress’ ability to regulate interstate commerce and to impose conditions on federal grants to the states. That decision, however, was far from the only ruling of major significance this term. The Court issued a number of important decisions that reflect its continuing bias in favor of corporate interests and against the rights of everyday Americans, demonstrating that Chief Justice John Roberts’ One-Percent Court was once again open for business. Read More »
The State of the Judiciary: Judicial Nominations During the First Three Years of the Obama Presidency
After three years of the Obama presidency, Republican senators‘ relentless, unprecedented obstruction of judicial nominees has created the almost unimaginable possibility that by the end of the president‘s first term, the overburdened federal courts may have more vacancies than when his presidency began. Republicans‘ goal has been clear from the start: to keep as many seats as possible vacant for a future Republican president to fill. Indeed, this is the strategy that they employed at the end of the Clinton Administration, when they kept 67 seats vacant. Read More »
The Thurmond Rule
The Thurmond Rule is not a formal Senate procedure or a bipartisan agreement, nor has its meaning or parameters been clearly articulated. In fact, as shown below, over the last 30 years confirmations of district and circuit court nominees have continued well into presidential election years under both Democratic and Republican Presidents. Read More »
State of the Judiciary: Judicial Nominations in the 112th Congress (Jan-May 2011)
This report tracks how the judicial selection process has changed so far during the 112th Congress. It contains the most comprehensive, up-to-date statistical and demographic information about Obama's judicial nominees of any public source. Read More »
