Clinton Administrations - Clinton and the Judiciary
Clinton and the Judiciary
Bill Clinton appointed the highest percentage of minorities and women to the federal bench than any U.S. president. Clinton did face the same controversial battles over Supreme Court nominees as Presidents Reagan and Bush, in part because Clinton's nominees for the high court were moderate in their judicial philosophies. In 1993 Clinton nominated the second woman to the Supreme Court, federal appeals court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to succeed the retiring Justice Byron White. In 1994, Clinton appointed former federal appeals court judge Stephen Breyer to succeed the retiring justice, Harry Blackmun. Both were known as moderate liberals, who fell in the middle of the ideological spectrum between the conservative appointees of Reagan and Bush and liberal judges that Jimmy Carter chose for the court. In the lower courts, too, Clinton avoided choosing judicial nominees who might attract opposition.
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