A new study by scholars at the University of Houston has found that the decisions of federal district court judges appointed by President Bush are significantly more conservative than decisions issued by judicial appointees of any other modern American president – especially when it comes to civil rights and civil liberties.
Political science professor Robert Carp and his team compiled a database of more than 75,000 opinions published by nearly 1,800 federal judges from 1933 to fall 2005, including 795 decisions handed down by judges appointed by President George W. Bush. The study examined cases in several issue areas where a liberal-conservative distinction was readily discernible, including civil rights, civil liberties, labor and economic regulation, criminal justice and the right to privacy. The researchers found that this Administration’s trial court judges are not only the most conservative of those of the eight most recent presidents (three Democrats and five Republicans) but the most conservative of any president going back to Woodrow Wilson. On civil rights and civil liberties, President Bush’s district court judges were found to be approximately 20% less likely than those appointed by Ronald Reagan – hardly known for being a liberal President or appointing liberal judges -- to hand down an opinion that could be called liberal. The Bush judges’ decisions on privacy issues including abortion were also significantly more conservative than those of other judges, although the researchers are careful to note that the sample in this area is not yet big enough to be conclusive.
The study will be published in a forthcoming book called Principles and Practice of American Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 3rd Edition, edited by Samuel Kernell and Steven S. Smith.
Note that this study does not even take into account Court of Appeals judges – and we know that some of the Bush appointees to those courts have pre-nomination records demonstrating extremely conservative views. Just wait until judges like Janice Rogers Brown, on the D.C. Circuit, begin to make their presence felt.
