President Carter's Selection Reforms and Judicial Policymaking

Abstract

In order to shed light on the impact of reforms in selection procedures on the policy made by the federal courts, this article compares the voting patterns of United States courts of appeals judges appointed by President Jimmy Carter with those appointed by President Lyndon Johnson. The study shows that there are significant differences between the two groups of judges that are not attributable to affirmative action in the Carter selection system nor to changes in Johnson appointees' voting patterns over time. Although I acknowledge that there are other factors that may underlie the differences between the two groups of judges, I conclude that it is reasonable to assert that the differences are attributable to the Carter reforms in the selection process.

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