Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times (Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society): Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times, Updated 2009

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Paperback
2009
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In Confirmation Wars, Benjamin Wittes examines the degradation of the judicial nominations process over the past fifty years. Drawing on years of reporting on judicial nominations, including numerous interviews with nominees and sitting judges, he explains how the process has changed and how these changes threaten the independence of the courts. Getting beyond the partisan blame game that dominates most discussion of nominations, he argues that the process has changed as an institutional response by Congress to modern judicial power and urges basic reforms to better insulate the judiciary from the nastiness of contemporary politics.

Synopsis

In Confirmation Wars, Benjamin Wittes examines the degradation of the judicial nominations process over the past fifty years. Drawing on years of reporting on judicial nominations, including numerous interviews with nominees and sitting judges, he explains how the process has changed and how these changes threaten the independence of the courts. Getting beyond the partisan blame game that dominates most discussion of nominations, he argues that the process has changed as an institutional response by Congress to modern judicial power and urges basic reforms to better insulate the judiciary from the nastiness of contemporary politics.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 182
Edition: Updated 2009
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 28 Jun 2009
ISBN 10: 1442201541
ISBN 13: 9781442201545

Media Reviews

Praise for the first edition: Benjamin Wittes, one of America's most insightful legal commentators, has achieved something remarkable: a book that casts genuinely fresh light on the question of judicial appointments. At a time when the debate about nominating and confirming judges tends to be shrill and partisan, this book is the opposite: scholarly, provocative, full of surprising history, and ultimately convincing. Both Wittes's analysis of the confirmation process and his proposed solutions will confound ideologues and delight open-minded readers of all political persuasions... -- Jeffrey Rosen, author of The Most Democratic Branch: How the Courts Serve America
...A terrific history of Supreme Court nominations. -- John R. Lott Jr. * New York Post *
Wittes, a Washington Post editorial writer, thoughtfully and dispassionately looks at how the federal judicial confirmation process has deteriorated over time (and he persuasively argues that it has indeed deteriorated), and what can be done about it. -- Eugene Volokh, UCLA
Witte's arguments and analyses are refreshing, especially his institutional perspective that sees the current confirmation process as the concomitant reaction to the overall institutional growth of the Judiciary over the last fifty years....Wittes's contribution to the study of the judicial selection process is an important one. * APSA Legislative Studies Section Newsletter, Book Notes, January 2008 *
Wittes is not pounding madly on the table-he is too thoughtful and careful with evidence for that-but he is alarmed that in these 'angry times,' the judicial confirmation process, disfigured by harsh partisanship, poses a short and longer term threat to judicial independence. ... [Confirmation Wars] is a fine treatment of judicial confirmation politics, at all points judicious in its treatment of the issues and informative in its coverage of the relevant history and scholarly debate. -- Bob Bauer, author of More Soft Money Hard Law
Praise for the first edition: Benjamin Wittes, one of America's most insightful legal commentators, has achieved something remarkable: a book that casts genuinely fresh light on the question of judicial appointments. At a time when the debate about nominating and confirming judges tends to be shrill and partisan, this book is the opposite: scholarly, provocative, full of surprising history, and ultimately convincing. Both Wittes's analysis of the confirmation process and his proposed solutions will confound ideologues and delight open-minded readers of all political persuasions. -- Jeffrey Rosen, author of The Most Democratic Branch: How the Courts Serve America
[Wittes is] a highly cogent legal commentator. * The Washington Post *
This is the most interesting and fair-minded book ever written about the politics of judicial confirmation. The partisan participants in the judicial confirmation process should take Wittes's proposals for fixing the system very seriously, but for reasons he discouragingly explains, they probably won't. -- Jack Goldsmith, Harvard University
This beautifully written and thought-provoking book is everything that the current confirmation process is not: temperate, thoughtful, nuanced, and fair. It is a 'must read' for anyone interested in the confirmation of federal judges. -- John Maltese, University of Georgia
Drawing upon his deep knowledge of Washington politics, Wittes proposes several structural solutions to confirmation partisanship, including abandoning nominee testimony and focusing Senators' attention on the nominee's record. Though some may find these suggestions radical, Wittes's practical, readable text represents a serious effort to cure a process that troubles many Americans. * Harvard Law Review, April 2007 *

Author Bio
Benjamin Wittes, senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution, is author of Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror and Starr: A Reassessment. His writings have appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines including Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, and The Weekly Standard.

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