ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

In an opinion piece in the Legal Times ($), attorney Al Meyerhoff suggests that the Senate should not confirm any judicial nominees until the next president takes office. He argues the Bush administration has had a large effect on the judiciary.

During the first year of the Bush presidency, the Democrats confirmed 59 appointments, twice the number confirmed in Clinton’s first year. Overall . . . 86 percent of Bush judicial nominations have been confirmed. . . . [At the same time,] the Bush administration and its allies have made a politicized judiciary into an art form.

He cites “real-world” consequences of this ideological shift.

It is [the circuit] courts that typically make final decisions about what is in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe; about the rights of the accused, the right to privacy, and the rest of our most basic liberties. And it is those courts that have shifted to the right, that are more likely to defer to executive power, favor big business, and protect the individual less.