Political judgment

13 November 2012 By Reynolds Holding Follow @holdingren

They lack the Supreme Court’s cachet, but can be more influential. Appeals courts often get the last word, especially on financial regulation. And judges’ political leanings matter. With top court vacancies rare, putting allies on the benches below can shape the law for decades.

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President Barack Obama’s re-election on Nov. 6 will allow him to replace any U.S. Supreme Court justice who retires in the next four years. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, and conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, both 76, are considered the most likely to leave.

There are 82 vacancies on the lower federal courts, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, including 15 on the courts of appeals, which rank second to the Supreme Court in importance. A 2006 study of appeals courts by University of Chicago Law School professors Thomas Miles and Cass Sunstein found that their decisions often depended on the political party of the president who appointed each judge hearing a case.

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