POLSC232: American Government

Read this article, which discusses the constitutional role of the Senate in confirming the President's judicial nominations. The selection of federal judges has always been a significant part of the political process. It makes a difference who serves on the federal courts. The courts have come to play an even more important role in the policy-making process. And as more and more interests – African Americans and women, for example – participate in this process, judicial-selection politics has come front and center on the political stage (which would probably dismay the Founding Fathers, whose goal was to create an independent judiciary free from political passions).