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Presidential Appointments Of Judges Essay

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Presidential Appointments When judges are appointed to the federal judiciary they must take into account the atmosphere they will be entering into (the judicial climate a judge enters). These new appointees will enter into their position where they must interact with people who have been there longer than they have. By the time these new judges enter the federal judiciary there is already an existing composition and atmosphere. They enter into the decisions already made, in which they must uphold the precedents made and constitutionality of cases or, if in the trial and appellate courts, the result may lead to the higher court overturning their decisions. When decisions are constantly being overturned it can result in a lack of legitimacy of the judge and could eventually result in impeachment, recall vote, etc. …show more content…

Although Carter was in favor of merit selection, he kept his eyes open for judges that would vote more liberally. Carter had good political clout as the Judiciary Committee and the Senate were majority democratic. Carter’s influence of the judiciary was great because he was able to easily pass the Omnibus Judgeship Act of 1978, he was able to appoint 152 judges to new positions. Carter’s judiciary had many liberal voting judges from previous presidents, such as Nixon and Ford, so the climate was easier for Carter’s newly appointed judges to ease into. Unlike Carter, Reagan was a conservative, one with the most conservative voting record of the thirteen we are looking at. Yet, though they had opposing views they both remained committed to changing the federal judiciary. Reagan had his own type of political clout – coming from his popular personality and the Senate being conservative for six out of his eight years as president. When Reagan began his judges entered into a liberal judiciary and were adhering to the climate they were set

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