Scoring Points: Politicians, Activists, and the Lower Federal
Court Appointment Process. By Nancy Scherer. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2005. 288p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.The last several decades have witnessed increasing politicization of
the selection and confirmation process for judges of the lower federal
courts. Nancy Scherer argues that this phenomenon results from politicians
engaging in “elite mobilization strategies” designed to
placate, and motivate, elite party activists. Republican presidents tend
to make ideologically driven appointments. Democratic presidents embrace
affirmative action in selecting judicial nominees, both to signal powerful
groups and also—insofar as Scherer's empirical analysis
confirms that female and minority Democratic judicial appointees tend to
be more liberal than other Democratic appointees—on ideological
grounds. Senators on both sides of the aisle employ obstructionist
tactics, and both parties have made judicial selection and confirmation a
campaign issue.
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