Kennedy Administration - Kennedy and the Judiciary
Kennedy and the Judiciary
Despite the brevity of his tenure in office, Kennedy substantially influenced the makeup of the federal judiciary, appointing 126 federal judges in less than three years, compared to 175 by Eisenhower in eight years. The large number of Kennedy appointments was largely because of the May 1961 enactment of an omnibus judiciary act, which administratively reformed the judiciary and created more than 70 new federal judgeships.
Each Kennedy nomination for a federal judgeship involved political bargaining, because each nomination had to be approved by the Senate and its Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator James Eastland of Mississippi. Eastland was a states rights advocate and staunch opponent of racial integration. For example, Eastland held up the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall, the most distinguished African American member of the American Bar Association (later appointed to the Supreme Court by...
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