Here's an alarming
fact. "Because of retirements, the percentage of Republican-nominated district judges actually has gone up" since President Obama took office. For thirty years, one of the right's most insidious and successful strategies was the takeover of the federal bench. Thus we have not only the Supreme Court we have, but about 60% of federal judges appointed by Republicans nationwide. The Federalist Society was formed in 1982
specifically to bring about this conservative revolution - for many years, conservative judges had easy access to the best and brightest and a badge of true conservatism on their resume - service in Fed-Soc. So not only did the Republicans have the appointments, but they also had all-but guaranteed loyalty screening as well. This strategy is very well known and well documented, and has been for some time. Most recently, Jeffrey Toobin's huge best-seller
The Nine articulated the strategy in great detail.
