Political Context, White House Centralization, and the Timing of Presidential Nominations to the Federal Courts

Abstract

Judicial nominations offer presidents one of their most important and enduring sources of influence. Studying all vacancies in federal district courts from 1961 to 2018, we show that presidents announce nominations to vacant judgeships at systematically faster rates in districts that provided greater electoral support. This pattern emerged most clearly in the last four decades and has strengthened over time. Additional evidence illustrates how presidential nomination strategies have distributional consequences for the courts' institutional capacity. Our results provide suggestive evidence about how the centralization of presidential decision making affects nominations to the federal courts and highlight a mechanism through which the president can influence the institutional capacity of adjoining branches of government.