Bush Judicial Legacy Will Outlast Him By Decades

TW: Have posted on this before but any POTUS especially a two-termer has tremendous opportunity to re-shape our federal courts not only at the SCOTUS level but at the appeals court level as well. W. Bush alas has not been an exception. W. Bush has added dozens of judges to those appointed by his father and Reagan to create the most conservative judiciary since the 1920's. The Republicans also tend to appoint younger judges, a trait Obama would do well to emulate.

From Int'l Herald Tribune:
"After a group of doctors challenged a South Dakota law forcing them to inform women that abortions "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being" - using exactly that language - President George W. Bush's appointees to the U.S. appeals courts took control...

His administration has transformed the U.S. federal appeals courts, advancing a conservative legal revolution that began nearly three decades ago under Ronald Reagan...Bush pointed with pride to his record at a conference sponsored by the Cincinnati chapter of the Federalist Society, the elite network for the conservative legal movement. He noted that he had appointed more than a third of the federal judiciary expected to be serving when he leaves office, a lifetime-tenured force that will influence society for decades and represents one of his most enduring accomplishments.

Bush's judges were among the youngest ever nominated and are poised to have an unusually strong impact...They have arrived at a time when the appeals courts, which decide tens of thousands of cases a year, are increasingly getting the last word. While the Supreme Court gets far more attention, in recent terms it has reviewed only about 75 cases a year - half what it considered a generation ago. And Bush's appointees have found allies in likeminded judges named by Bush's father and Reagan.

Republican-appointed judges, most conservatives, now make up 61 percent of the bench, up from 50 percent when Bush took office. They control 10 of the 13 circuits, while Democrat-appointed judges have a dwindling majority on just one circuit.

The consequences of the evolving judiciary are only beginning to play out...Bush's commitment to moving the courts rightward has been important not only to elite conservative thinkers, but also to the social conservatives who have constituted his base of support..."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/28/america/judges.php