Friday, November 06, 2009
Slim Pickings from the Federal Appellate Courts [Ed Whelan]
If, as I expect, President Obama is presented with another Supreme Court vacancy next year, one prominent pool of potential candidates consists of sitting federal appellate judges. (Since Justice Alito replaced Justice O’Connor in 2006, the Court has been composed entirely of justices who have had previous service on the federal courts of appeals—a historic first.) As it happens, the set of sitting federal appellate judges who will be 60 or younger next year and who were appointed by a Democratic president is not large.
Fourteen of President Clinton’s appointees were born in 1950 or later (and none after 1954):
R. Guy Cole Jr. (1951)
Merrick B. Garland (1952)
Roger L. Gregory* (1953)
Robert H. Henry (1953)
Robert A. Katzmann (1953)
M. Margaret McKeown (1951)
Johnnie B. Rawlinson (1952)
Barry G. Silverman (1951)
Carl E. Stewart (1950)
Richard C. Tallman (1953)
Sidney R. Thomas (1953)
Kim McLane Wardlaw (1954)
Charles R. Wilson (1954)
Diane P. Wood (1950)
Of these 14, I’d be surprised if more than three or four would make the White House’s initial long list of candidates to consider seriously. (Wood is one who would likely be on that list—though she’d be a politically perilous pick—but I’ll refrain from offering my speculation as to the other two or three.)
The one federal appellate judge whom Obama has so far appointed, Gerard E. Lynch, was born in 1951.
(I’ve drawn my data from the Federal Judicial Center’s Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. If I’ve made any mistakes, please let me know.)
* Clinton recess-appointed Gregory to a temporary position on the Fourth Circuit, and President George W. Bush, in an unrequited act of goodwill, later appointed Gregory to a lifetime seat.
11/06 02:14 PM
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