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One of the most infamous legacies that the Clinton-Gore Administration will leave to future generations of Americans is a federal judiciary packed with radical liberal judges. These activist judges have been nominated by Bill Clinton and ratified by an extremely agreeable Republican-controlled Senate. The following analyses reveal how much this sinister legacy grew during 1998.
| Figure 1 |
| COURTS | Total Authorized Seats | Confirmed Clinton Appointees | Clinton Percentage Total | Vacancies | Clinton Percentage of Filled Seats |
| USSC | 9 | 2 | 22.2% | 0 | 22.2% |
| USCA | 179 | 50 | 27.9% | 14 | 30.3% |
| USDC | 642 | 249 | 38.8% | 34 | 41.0% |
| TOTAL | 830 | 301 | 36.3% | 48 | 38.4% |
| Source: Free Congress Foundation |
- It is of the gravest concern that almost 40% of our federal judgeships are now occupied by Clinton nominees, with nearly fifty vacancies still to be filled, and two more years remaining in the Clinton-Gore term.
- The largest group of vacancies is on the U. S. District Courts. This is critically important because these tribunals are the workhorses of the federal judiciary, handling over 900,000 cases annually and serving as the actual first and final court for the vast majority of federal cases.
| Figure 2 |
| YEAR | USSC | USCA | USDC | TOTAL |
| 1993 | 1 | 3 | 24 | 28 |
| 1994 | 1 | 15 | 85 | 101 |
| 1995 | 0 | 9 | 44 | 53 |
| 1996 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 20 |
| 1997 | 0 | 7 | 29 | 36 |
| 1998 | 0 | 14 | 49 | 63 |
| TOTAL | 2 | 50 | 249 | 301 |
| Source: Free Congress Foundation |
- Clinton in six years with a Republican-controlled Senate has now appointed more judges (301) than did Ronald Reagan and his Republican-controlled Senate; the Reagan total after his first six years was only 293.
- 1998 was the second-best year for Clinton during his six years in office and recorded the fourth highest number of annual confirmations since 1980.
- October of 1998 recorded the second highest monthly confirmation output in twenty years.
- On the last day of the 1998 Congressional session, seventeen judicial nominees (27% of the entire year's total) were swept through the Republican-controlled Senate in a matter of seconds without debate or a roll-call vote. As a matter of fact, these seventeen were not even named, but were identified only as numbers on an executive calendar presented to the Senate. The seventeen were tucked in among a total of eighty-five nominations rammed through the Senate in the closing minutes of its term.
IS THIS GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE? JOIN EAGLE FORUM'S EFFORTS TO REVERSE THIS TREND. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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