Law professors join colleagues in plea to President Obama to speed judicial nominations
On February 24, 11 prominent law professors—including two from Law—wrote President Barack Obama to express alarm about the slow pace at which federal judges are being nominated and confirmed. The letter pointed out that, to date, the administration had nominated only 43 judges, despite the fact that there are more than 100 judicial vacancies and 31 judicial “emergencies” due to unfilled positions. At the same point in his presidency, President George W. Bush had nominated 89 judges to the federal bench, and by the time he left office he had “transformed the federal judiciary in a sharply conservative direction.” The letter called on President Obama to redouble his efforts in this area.
faculty members , Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and , Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, signed the letter.
In a March 2 , another signatory to the letter, of the University of Chicago Law School, wrote: “The White House’s response to our letter was to acknowledge the issue and to assure us that it had already begun taking steps to address our concerns.” Stone has been a visiting professor at Law since 2002.
Posted on March 5, 2010