PSSST, YOU MEAN HIGHEST SCORE:

A Bench More White, Male and Conservative (Washington Post, December 8, 2008)

As a result of Bush's 311 appointments to federal district courts and the appellate bench, judges across the country are more male, more white and slightly more Hispanic than those in place at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency. A third of the nominees during Bush's first term had "a history of working as lawyers and lobbyists on behalf of the oil, gas and energy industries," according to a study by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

A University of Houston study of rulings by Bush's district court appointees through 2004 found that 27 percent of the judges supported what might be considered "liberal" outcomes in litigation related to the Bill of Rights or civil rights -- "giving the President the lowest score of any modern chief executive," according to the author, Robert A. Carp. Bush's judges also were much less likely to express support for privacy rights.

There is, Carp said, "a noticeable and measurable shift in a conservative direction, in favor of business [and] to favor the prosecution in a criminal case."

W is who the Right thinks Reagan was.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 8, 2008 3:45 PM