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Yeah but the others are all Clinton Judges.

Unless you think Clinton appointed "Honest Liberal Judges" to the most corrupt appelate court in the country, I would suspect something is up...

9 posted on 09/19/2003 12:48:38 PM PDT by Pubbie ("Last time I checked, he doesn't have a vote" - Tom DeLay on Ari Fleischer's demand for Tax-Rebates)

It's just luck of the draw.

There's nothing more up than, say, drawing a conservative three judge panel on the 4th Circuit. That's just what happens when you have a predominance of one party's appointees on the bench.

The 9th Circuit was expanded by, I think, 10 judges under Carter, and Clinton got the retirement/senior status excess of those. That's part of the reason the Circuit is so weird.

Another part is that there are so many judges that they have these limited en banc panels. It's a common complaint among the judges themselves that it's hard for them to keep consistent law for the circuit when it's not all of them making a decision.

Tallman is usually not-Liberal in politically charged cases. But then, Clinton only tapped Tallman as part of a package deal with Trent Lott to get another 9th Cir. nominee a floor vote, and approval for a TVA nominee. So he's not a typical Clinton pick.