Judicial nominations, 2001–2008

An appointment record with different outcomes

President George W. Bush's judicial nominations included appointments to the Supreme Court, courts of appeals and district courts, alongside nominations that ended without confirmation. Wikipedia's nomination table spans submissions in 2001 and 2008, including the appellate nominations of Terrence Boyle and Glen E. Conrad, and records later final action where applicable in its account of Bush's judicial nominations. The period therefore involved both completed appointments and proposals that did not reach that result. Treating the confirmed judges and the unconfirmed nominations separately makes the record easier to follow.

Wikipedia's appointment list gives Bush's total as 327 Article III judges, including 62 court of appeals judges and 261 district court judges, in its list of federal judges appointed by Bush. It also includes the Supreme Court and the Court of International Trade within that overall category and distinguishes appointments to courts established under other constitutional articles. These are appointment totals rather than a count of every nomination submission. The separate list of unsuccessful nominations identifies a different question: which proposals ended without Senate confirmation, and how the Senate or the president concluded them.

Filibusters and a negotiated agreement

Contested appellate nominations brought the distinction between ending debate and confirming a nominee into focus. Wikipedia describes Democratic senators' use of filibusters against Bush nominees and Republican leaders' proposal to change the Senate's treatment of those nominations in its account of the negotiated Senate compromise. The procedural dispute concerned access to a confirmation vote as well as the eventual vote itself. A commitment to help a nomination reach that vote did not require every senator involved to support the nominee on confirmation.

In spring 2005, senators from both parties negotiated the agreement associated with the Gang of 14, according to Wikipedia's account of the group. Its Democratic participants agreed to support cloture on specified nominees and limit their use of filibusters; its Republican participants agreed to oppose the proposed procedural change. The commitments depended on the signatories' judgments about circumstances surrounding nominations. The agreement thus addressed Senate procedure and particular nominations rather than supplying a general assessment of every candidate's qualifications. Its relationship to cloture is explained further on the page about debate limits and judicial nominations.

The resulting appointments included Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor, whose confirmation votes were 55-43, 56-43 and 53-45 respectively, as Wikipedia records in its discussion of the agreement. Their completed nominations contrasted with the unconfirmed nominations of Miguel Estrada and William Myers. Wikipedia lists Estrada's nomination as withdrawn by Bush and Myers's as returned to the president in its table of unsuccessful nominations. Those final-action descriptions concern the nominations, without establishing an identical procedural history for each nominee.

A later appellate confirmation

Brett Kavanaugh's D.C. Circuit nomination followed a further committee and floor process. Wikipedia places his original appellate nomination in 2003 and describes renewed Senate consideration in 2006 in its account of nominations following the agreement. It records a further committee hearing and subsequent committee action before the floor proceedings. The sequence illustrated that a nomination could remain contested after the earlier compromise and still reach a confirmation vote; the agreement did not remove the Judiciary Committee's role in examining a nomination.

Cloture on Kavanaugh's nomination passed on May 25 by 67–30, and the Senate confirmed him the following day by 57–36, within the 2006 proceedings described by Wikipedia. These were separate decisions with different recorded tallies. The cloture vote ended the obstacle to bringing the nomination to its final Senate decision, while the confirmation vote supplied the Senate's consent to the appointment.

Supreme Court nominations and final actions

John Roberts's nominations involved a change in the vacancy being filled. In July 2005, Bush nominated him to succeed Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; after Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, that nomination was withdrawn and Bush announced Roberts for chief justice on September 5, 2005, according to Wikipedia's account of the Roberts nominations. Roberts was then a D.C. Circuit judge. The chief justice nomination required Senate consideration of that office rather than completion of the earlier associate justice nomination.

Roberts was confirmed as chief justice on September 29, 2005, by 78–22, as Wikipedia records. Samuel Alito was Bush's other Supreme Court appointee, identified in the appointment list; his committee and floor proceedings are covered in the Alito nomination profile. The selected table uses the nomination date and recorded final action for each listed proposal. A returned nomination is distinct from a presidential withdrawal, and neither entry should be read as a recorded Senate rejection vote. The nomination process overview follows the stages that connect a presidential choice, Senate consideration and an eventual judicial appointment.

Selected nominations that ended without confirmation, as Wikipedia records them.

Nominee	Court	Nominated	Outcome
Miguel Estrada.	D.C. Cir.	Nominated May 9, 2001, as Wikipedia records.	Withdrawn by President Bush on September 4, 2003, according to Wikipedia.
Charles W. Pickering.	5th Cir.	Nominated May 25, 2001, as Wikipedia records.	Returned to the president on December 8, 2004, according to Wikipedia.
Carolyn Kuhl.	9th Cir.	Nominated June 22, 2001, as Wikipedia records.	Returned to the president on December 8, 2004, according to Wikipedia.
William H. Steele.	11th Cir.	Nominated October 9, 2001, as Wikipedia records.	Returned to the president on November 20, 2002, according to Wikipedia.
Henry Saad.	6th Cir.	Nominated November 8, 2001, as Wikipedia records.	Withdrawn by President Bush on March 27, 2006, according to Wikipedia.
James H. Payne.	10th Cir.	Nominated September 29, 2005, as Wikipedia records.	Withdrawn by President Bush on March 7, 2006, according to Wikipedia.
E. Duncan Getchell.	4th Cir.	Nominated September 6, 2007, as Wikipedia records.	Withdrawn by President Bush on January 23, 2008, according to Wikipedia.
Glen E. Conrad.	4th Cir.	Nominated May 8, 2008, as Wikipedia records.	Returned to the president on January 2, 2009, according to Wikipedia.