Picking Federal Judges : Lower Court Selection from Roosevelt Through Reagan

by Sheldon Goldman

• ISBN13: 9780300080735
• ISBN10: 0300080735
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1999-09-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In this landmark book, a leading authority on lower federal court judicial selections tells the riveting story of how nine presidents over a period of fifty-six years have chosen federal judges. Sheldon Goldman has interviewed participants, and he has mined published and unpublished government documents and archives, along with memoranda, letters, and other documents in the papers of every president from Franklin Roosevelt through Ronald Reagan, to bring to life the judicial selection process. His book is filled with richly drawn and dramatic accounts of each president's use of judicial appointments to further policy, partisan, and personal agendas. Goldman analyzes political and social changes that have occurred over the years and the impact of those changes on the profile of those selected for the bench.

Author Biography

Sheldon Goldman is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xii
Judicial Selection in Theoretical and Historical Perspective	p. 1
Roosevelt Remakes the Courts	p. 15
Truman Carries On	p. 65
Eisenhower Takes Charge	p. 109
The New Frontier/Great Society Judiciary	p. 154
Picking Judges in the Shadow of Watergate	p. 198
Carter Reforms Judicial Selection	p. 236
Reaganizing the Judiciary	p. 285
Summing Up over Fifty-Six Years	p. 346
A Note on Sources	p. 367
Notes	p. 370
Index	p. 413
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