Ch. 16: The Federal Courts Pg. 516-520

FEDERAL ATTORNEYS Attorney General: Solicitor General: Appointed by President w/Senate consent. Head of Justice Dept. Solicitor General: Represents U.S. government in Supreme Court. Decides which cases the federal government will appeal to the Supreme Court. Decides the federal government's position in these cases. Sometimes called the “10th Justice” of the Supreme Court because of his influence there.

FEDERAL ATTORNEYS U.S. Attorneys: At least one for each District Court, 94 in all. Prosecutes federal criminal cases before the District Courts and Courts of Appeals, though most cases are settled by plea-bargaining. Represents U.S. government in civil cases before these same courts. Appointed by the President for 4-year terms. Key patronage positions. Senatorial courtesy applies in their appointments.

FEDERAL JUDGES Appointed by President with “advice and consent” of Senate. Article III states that they shall hold their offices "during good behavior," i.e., for life. They can, however, be impeached and removed by Congress (very rare -- only a handful of removals in 200 years). Compensation: Determined by Congress, though compensation cannot be lowered during judges' terms of office. 2009 salaries: District Court: $169,300, Courts of Appeals: 179,500, and Supreme Court: 208,100 (Chief Justice: 217,400).

FEDERAL JUDGES Factors affecting selection of federal judges: Senatorial courtesy: When appointing District Court, the President must consult with the two Senators from the state in which they are to be appointed. The Senate will then show “courtesy” to those two senators by not confirming judges to whom the two senators object.

FEDERAL JUDGES Senate Judiciary Committee: Screens the nominees, and sends a recommendation to Senate floor for approval or rejection. In recent years, has given more scrutiny to appointments, particularly those at the Supreme Court level. The committee held up confirmation of many of Clinton’s lower court judges for months, and even years (44 months in one case). Use of “hold.” Democrats returned the favor by filibustering some of Bush 43 nominations.

FEDERAL JUDGES Senate: Majority vote needed for confirmation. Has refused to act upon, or has rejected, 21% of Supreme Court nominees in the 20th century. Political parties: judges are generally from the same political party as the President.

FEDERAL JUDGES Diversity: Race: Mostly white. Carter appointed more minorities than all the previous Presidents combined. Clinton also appointed numerous minorities to the fed. Bench. "Black seat" on the Supreme Court was established by Thurgood Marshall - Clarence Thomas. 17% of Clinton’s appointments were black.

FEDERAL JUDGES Sex: Age: Race: Mostly male. Carter appointed more women than all the previous Presidents combined. 25% of Clinton’s appts. female. Age: Since judges have lifetime appointments, judges may live on long after the Presidents who appoint them die. Pres. influence continues after they leave office.

FEDERAL JUDGES Ideology of prospective judges: Presidents generally try to appoint people of similar philosophy. This is difficult to ensure, however: Predicting future behavior on the part of judges is at best an imperfect science. New issues may arise which the President could not have possibly considered.

FEDERAL JUDGES Since judges have life terms, Presidents can do nothing about decisions they do not like. Approximately 25% of Supreme Court judges "stray" from the philosophy that had been anticipated by the Presidents who appointed them. e.g., Warren, Brennan, Souter. Ideology also can affect the decision of a judge to retire. a judge may want to delay retiring until there is a President with a more favorable philosophy.

FEDERAL JUDGES American Bar Association evaluates nominees. Not used by Bush 43, but Sen. Judiciary Committee still considers ABA ratings. Existence of a "paper trail," e.g., with Robert Bork (“the Bork Battle”). If a prospective judge has written extensively, his writings may be used against him during confirmation hearings. Bush 41, for example, did not want to undergo a confirmation hearing battle with a nominee who had an extensive paper trail, so he played it safe by nominating David Souter, who was such an unknown that he was dubbed the "stealth candidate" (“the Souter Solution”).

FEDERAL JUDGES Number of judges: Congress can increase or decrease the number of courts and judges. If it has a President of the same party, it would be more likely to increase the number than if it has a President of the opposing party. If it had a VERY undesirable President, it could reduce the number of judges by not allowing vacancies to be filled of judges who had retired or died. This was done by Congress in the Andrew Johnson administration, when the size of the Supreme Court shrank from 9 to 7.