CRS – U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations During President Obama’s First Six Years (2009-2014): Comparative Analysis with Recent Presidents, March 9, 2015.

“The selection and confirmation process for U.S. circuit and district court judges is of continuing interest to Congress. Recent Senate debates over judicial nominations have focused on issues such as the relative degree of success of President Barack Obama’s nominees in gaining Senate confirmation compared with other recent Presidents, as well as the time from nomination to confirmation for nominees, and the relative prevalence of vacant judgeships compared to years past. This report addresses these issues, and others, by providing a statistical analysis of nominations to U.S. circuit and district court judgeships during the first six years of President Obama’s time in office and that of his three most recent two-term predecessors, Presidents Reagan, Clinton and G.W. Bush. Some of the report’s findings include the following:
•During his first six years in office, President Obama nominated 61 persons to U.S. circuit court judgeships. Of the 61, 53 were also confirmed during this same six-year period. The 53 confirmed Obama circuit court nominees represented the second-highest number of nominees confirmed during recent Presidents’ first six years. President Clinton had the lowest number at 50. The percentage of circuit court nominees confirmed during President Obama’s first six years, 86.9%, was also the second-highest, while the percentage confirmed during President G.W. Bush’s, 75.0%, was the lowest. Of the four Presidents, President Reagan had both the greatest number (66) and percentage (97.1%) of circuit court nominees confirmed within the first six years of his presidency…”