Legal Commentary

An Antidote to the Conservative Judiciary

By TChris

This article suggests that President Obama will "drastically reshape" the Fourth Circuit when, in the near future, he nominates judges to fill circuit vacancies. It's about time.

In recent years, the Fourth Circuit had become the most assertively conservative court in the nation. Its judges have taken the lead in trying to reduce federal power in several areas, even once trying to lead the way in undoing the Miranda rule that criminal suspects must be apprised of their rights before they answer questions. The court’s conservative majority also tried to roll back affirmative action policies and was reliably supportive of Bush administration efforts to widen presidential authority in detaining terrorism suspects without trial or charges without Congressional input.

An essential mission of the Obama administration should be to restore balance to the federal judiciary, not just in the Fourth Circuit. [more ...]

Because Republicans have controlled the White House for all of the last 28 years except the eight years of the Clinton presidency, more than 60 percent of the judiciary is made up of Republican-nominated judges. The result is Republican control of eight of the regional appeals courts; Democrats have a majority in two circuits, the Second and the Ninth, based in San Francisco. The Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia, is split 6 to 6, with two vacancies.

The conservative goal of moving the courts to the right has been achieved:

[Studies show that Republican-appointed judges] tend to be more restrictive of abortion rights, less accommodating to criminal defendants and sharply skeptical of expanding federal authority at the expense of the states.

"Less accommodating to criminal defendants" means less willing to enforce the constitutional rights that protect the accused, as well as the rights that protect our privacy. Let's hope for 20 years of Democratic presidencies as an antidote to the conservative dominance of the federal judiciary.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 11, 2009 (boomark / email).