U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations During President Obama’s First Five Years: Comparative Analysis With Recent Presidents

Summary

The selection and confirmation process for U.S. circuit and district court judges is of continuing interest to Congress. Recent Senate debates over judicial nominations have focused on issues such as the relative degree of success of President Barack Obama’s nominees in gaining Senate confirmation compared with other recent Presidents, as well as the relative prevalence of vacant judgeships compared to years past, and the effect of delayed judicial appointments on judicial vacancy levels. This report addresses these issues, and others, by providing a statistical analysis of nominations to U.S. circuit and district court judgeships during the first five years of President Obama’s time in office and that of his three most recent two-term predecessors. Some of the report’s findings include the following:

During his first five years in office, President Obama nominated 57 persons to U.S. circuit court judgeships. Of the 57, 41 (71.9%) were also confirmed during this same five-year period. The 41 confirmed Obama circuit court nominees represented the second-lowest number of nominees confirmed during recent Presidents’ first five years. President Clinton had the lowest number at 37. The percentage of circuit court nominees confirmed during President Obama’s first five years, 71.9%, was also the second-lowest, while the percentage confirmed during President Clinton’s, 69.8%, was the lowest. Of the four Presidents, President Reagan had both the greatest number (55) and percentage (94.8%) of circuit court nominees confirmed within the first five years of his presidency.

Of the 226 persons nominated by President Obama to U.S. district court judgeships during his first five years, 173 (76.5%) were confirmed. Of the four Presidents, this was the lowest number and percentage of district court nominees confirmed. Of the comparison group, President Clinton had the greatest number of district court nominees confirmed during his first five years (198) while President Reagan had the greatest percentage of district court nominees confirmed (95.5%)—followed closely by the percentage of district court nominees confirmed during the first five years of the G.W. Bush presidency (93.8%).

The average number of days elapsed from nomination to confirmation for circuit court nominees confirmed during a President’s first five years ranged from 56.8 days during the Reagan presidency to 402.0 days during the G.W. Bush presidency. The median number of days from nomination to confirmation for circuit court nominees confirmed during a President’s first five years ranged from 37.0 days (Reagan) to 245.0 (G.W. Bush). The average and median number of days from nomination to confirmation for President Obama’s circuit nominees were 253.7 and 228.0 days, respectively.

The average number of days elapsed from nomination to confirmation for district court nominees confirmed during a President’s first five years ranged from 50.0 days during the Reagan presidency to 223.3 days during the Obama presidency. The median number of days from nomination to confirmation for district court nominees confirmed during a President’s first five years ranged from 31.0 days (Reagan) to 214.0 (Obama).

President Obama is the only President of the four for whom, during his first five years in office, a majority of U.S. circuit and district court nominees waited more than 180 days to be confirmed after being nominated.

President Obama is the only President of the four for whom there was an increase in the percentage of both U.S. circuit and district court judgeships that were vacant from January 1 of his fifth year in office to January 1 of his sixth year.

The percentage of circuit court vacancies deemed “judicial emergencies” increased from January 1 of the fifth year to January 1 of the sixth year of the Obama presidency and decreased over the same period during the Clinton and G.W. Bush presidencies. The percentage of district court vacancies deemed judicial emergencies increased from January 1 of the fifth to the sixth years of the Clinton and Obama presidencies and decreased over the same period during the G.W. Bush presidency.