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News

Study: Bush appoints staunch conservatives

Judges chosen by Bush shown to be more conservative than those picked by Reagan

COUGAR NEWS SERVICES 

A UH political science professor recently completed a study finding that judges appointed by President George W. Bush are the most conservative ever recorded in areas such as civil rights and liberties.

Robert Carp, along with researchers from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmoth and Appalachian State University, gathered information from a Federal Supplement database made up of more than 75,000 opinions by nearly 1,800 judges.

Of those opinions, 795 were made by judges appointed by Bush. 

The study, entitled "The voting Behavior of George W. Bush's Judges: How Sharp a Turn to the Right?" compares total liberalism scores of jurists appointed by the last eight presidents -- three democrats and five republicans.

"Our findings are significant because the general consensus is that President Reagan is the most modern conservative president on record, and yet the judges appointed by George W. Bush are even more conservative than the Reagan judges," Robert Carp said in a release.

Carp and his research team found that 33 percent of the decisions of Bush's jurists have been liberal. 

The study also found that women and minorities appointed by Bush are more liberal than his white male appointees.

"This makes the Bush team not only the most conservative of the eight most recent presidents but indeed it is the most conservative number that we have for all American presidents going back to the time of Woodrow Wilson," said in a release.

CQ Press will publish the research findings in "Principles and Practice of American Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings, Third Edition."
 

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