President Barack Obama will spend much of the next five months defending his record on everything from the economy to national security, but while his accomplishments in those realms are debatable, his shortcomings with respect to seeding the federal judiciary are evident to liberals and conservatives alike.
Whether or not the root cause is Republican obstructionism in the Senate or the White House’s own lack of interest in pushing through appointments, the results are starkly clear. The president has simply filled positions at a slower rate than his predecessor, George W. Bush, who made placing conservative-minded jurists in the courts a top priority of his administration.
