Page 37 - Demo

6.1 %u2022 The Constitution and the Federal Judiciary 189Congress Builds the JudiciaryThe first Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 to fill in details about %u201cthe nature and the organization%u201d of the court system.37 Only the chief justice of the United States is mentioned in the Constitution; the document does not specify the number of justices in the Court, instead leaving that decision to Congress. The chief justice presides over private conferences between the justices (where they discuss which cases to take and vote on the cases they have already heard) and, in cases where the chief justice has voted with the majority, decides who will write the majority opinion.The Judiciary Act added five associate judges to the Supreme Court, bringing the total number of justices to six. Although the number of justices has varied throughout the nation%u2019s history, it has been set at nine since 1869. The Judiciary Act also established two lower tiers to the federal judiciary because only the Supreme Court had been set out in the Constitution, although changes have been made to their organization since (refer to Figure 6.1).Appointment to the Federal JudiciaryFederal judges must be nominated by the president and confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate. Because federal judges are appointed for life%u2014on the condition of %u201cgood behavior%u201d%u2014successfully placing individuals on the federal bench is a way for a president to have an influence on government and on public policy long after that president%u2019s term ends.While most district court nominees are approved, since the 1960s confirmations of appellate and Supreme Court judges have been more contentious and affected by partisan political battles. One reason that things tend to run more smoothly at the district court level is the custom of senatorial courtesy, in which presidents consult with senators from the state in which the vacant district judgeship is located, especially if those senators are from the president%u2019s political party.While most Supreme Court nominees are confirmed, since the late twentieth century their confirmation hearings often involve intense scrutiny. Recent confirmation votes in the Senate have tended to be closer than those in prior decades. As with other presidential nominees subject to Senate approval, some federal judicial nominations have been blocked by a filibuster. In November 2013, a majority of senators, led by the Democrats, voted to change the filibuster rules to allow the closure of debate over executive nominees to the lower courts by a simple majority vote rather than the previous requirement of sixty votes.38 In April 2017, Senate Republicans voted to lower the threshold for advancing Supreme Court nominees so that they could move ahead to a confirmation vote by the Senate from sixty to a simple majority, paving the way for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch.39 The 2018 nomination of Brett Kavanaugh generated controversy after three women accused him of sexual misconduct, charges that he denied. Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed by a vote of 50 to 48.40 After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy, and her appointment was confirmed in the Senate on October%u00a026, 2020, by a vote of 52 to 48.41Similarly, following her nomination by President Biden, Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed on April 7, 2022, by a vote of 53 to 47.FIGURE 6.1How the Federal Judiciary Is Structured%u2022 Appellate jurisdiction%u2022 Limited original jurisdiction%u2022 Appellate jurisdictionU.S. Supreme CourtU.S. Court of AppealsU.S. District Courts %u2022 Original jurisdiction%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.