Reagan's Indisputable Legacy - The Judiciary

[Bake]

Reagan's mark made in court appointments

By MICHAEL McGOUGH
BLADE WASHINGTON BUREAU

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In 1988, in a speech to a convention of the Federalist Society, a group of conservative and libertarian lawyers and law students, President Ronald Reagan recalled that he had promised to appoint federal judges "who didn't share the skepticism of our extreme liberal friends about the fundamentals that underpin our laws and our society. We would select judges who would reaffirm the core belief of our free land - and we have."
Mr. Reagan then reeled off the names of William Rehnquist, whom he had elevated to Chief Justice of the United States; Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia, "and of course Judge Robert Bork," whose nomination to the high court the year before had been defeated in the U.S. Senate.

As Americans reflect on the legacy of the 40th president, who died Saturday, many legal observers see his 358 appointments to the federal courts as one of his most enduring legacies. Three hundred and six of those appointees are still active federal judges.

"Reagan and his folks put in a systematic effort to reshape the federal judiciary in a very right-wing mold," said Eliott Mincberg, vice president and legal director of the liberal group People for the American Way.

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"They refused to nominate nominees promoted by moderate Republicans," Mr. O'Brien said, recalling that Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese once told a lawyers' group that the president's judicial appointments would institutionalize the Reagan revolution.

Many legal observers say that is exactly what happened. Reagan appointees - joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by the first President Bush - have upheld vouchers for students at parochial schools, lowered the wall separating church and state, limited state governments' exposure to private lawsuits in federal court, curbed affirmative action, and made it easier for condemned murderers to be executed.


306 judicial appointments still on the bench 20+ years later. There's Raygun's real legacy. And we're stuck with them.

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