The power to nominate federal judges is one of the great prizes of any Presidency

Poisonous Atmosphere Keeping Obama From Appointing Judges
Are Obama’s judges really liberals?

The Obama Administration wanted to send a message with the President’s first nomination to a federal court. “There was a real conscious decision to use that first appointment to say, ‘This is a new way of doing things. This is a post-partisan choice,’ ” one White House official involved in the process told me. “Our strategy was to show that our judges could get Republican support.” So on March 17th President Obama nominated David Hamilton, the chief federal district-court judge in Indianapolis, to the Seventh Circuit court of appeals. Hamilton had been vetted with care. After fifteen years of service on the trial bench, he had won the highest rating from the American Bar Association; Richard Lugar, the senior senator from Indiana and a leading Republican, was supportive; and Hamilton’s status as a nephew of Lee Hamilton, a well-respected former local congressman, gave him deep connections. The hope was that Hamilton’s appointment would begin a profound and rapid change in the confirmation process and in the federal judiciary itself.
The power to nominate federal judges is one of the great prizes of any Presidency, and Obama assumed office at a propitious moment. After Democrats won control of the Senate in 2006, the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, significantly slowed down the confirmation process for George W. Bush’s appointees to the federal appeals courts. In addition, many federal judges appointed by President Clinton were waiting for the election of a Democratic President in order to resign. Now vacancies abound. Just eight months into his first term, Obama already has the chance to nominate judges for twenty-one seats on the federal appellate bench—more than ten per cent of the hundred and seventy-nine judges on those courts. At least half a dozen more seats should open in the next few months. There are five vacancies on the Fourth Circuit alone; just by filling those seats, Obama can convert the Fourth Circuit, which has long been known as one of the most conservative courts in the country, into one with a majority of Democratic appointees. On the federal district courts, there are seventy-two vacancies, also about ten per cent of the total; home-state senators of the President’s party generally take the lead in selecting nominees for these seats, but Obama will have influence in these choices as well. Seven appeals and ten district judges have been named so far. George W. Bush, in the first eight months of his Presidency, nominated fifty-two. But Obama, unlike Bush in his first year, has had the opportunity to place his first Justice on the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor—and her confirmation has opened up another seat on the Second Circuit court of appeals. Justice John Paul Stevens, who is eighty-nine, has hired only one law clerk for the next Supreme Court term, so a second Obama appointment to the Court may be imminent as well.

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Stevens' Clerks Believe He Will Retire Next Spring
Fineman Predicts: Justice Stevens to Retire Next Spring

Less than two weeks ago, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens made news in a typically elliptical court way. He announced that he had hired only one─as opposed to the full complement of four─clerks for next year. Reporters and bloggers (not always the same thing)speculated that Stevens, who is approaching 90 years old and who has been on the court since 1975, will retire at the end of the court's spring term. But let me replace the speculation with something a little firmer. Though there are no sure things in life or judging, Stevens's legion of former clerks are convinced that he will in fact retire late next spring. Stevens is known as particularly punctual and exacting about lining up new clerks early in the year. The fact that he did not do so is a certain indication that he will step down, one of his former clerks told me this week. "There is NO WAY he would go into next year without the full group," said this clerk, who spoke on background out of respect for court tradition and the behind-the-scenes role of clerks. Another former clerk, speaking on the same condition, agreed."He's still vigorous and I think he wants to leave the court that way," this clerk told me.
While he will have many months to ponder his choices, and it is not good form at the White House to make lists, especially so early in the process, I know that many in the legal community are rooting for Harold Koh, a former dean of the Yale Law School who is now serving as a legal adviser to the State Department. He rings all the academic bells─Harvard College and Law School and Oxford, as well as Yale─and he is a Korean-American. The court has never had an Asian-American member.
An Obama-nominated replacement for Stevens almost certainly would not alter the ideological balance of the Roberts Court.Whoever takes his place will be part of the four-member "liberal" wing that has been in the minority since President George W. Bush's two nominees made it onto the court. That four-person contingent may be in the numerical minority, but it's already clear the the newest member, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, will add to the group's fizz and feistiness. I attended a Supreme Court argument last week that, by chance, was Sotomayor's first. She showed no reticence to chime in─she did so less than a third of the way through the hearing─and she seemed utterly comfortable and in command as she asked questions and made assertions in front of a packed house. She wasn't afraid to trade philosophical barbs with Justice Antonin Scalia (the bully of the court), to to discuss fine points of precedent and procedure.
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