In U.S. appeals courts, Reagan’s influence endures
Joan Biskupic reports in USA Today:
They became the first judges in more than a half-century to say the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns. They took the lead in ruling against affirmative action and other race-conscious policies. And they upheld bans on an abortion procedure called “partial birth” before it reached the Supreme Court.
They are prominent appeals court judges appointed by President Reagan in the 1980s — the products of an unprecedented, meticulous and often controversial screening process that transformed the politics of judicial nominations.
Named to an influential set of 13 regional courts, they were, as a group, young, brainy and bold. They became the legal vanguard of the Reagan agenda to lessen federal control — and protections — in American life . . .
Now, nearly 20 years after Reagan left office, many of them are at the height of their power . . .