Clinton and the Courts

Abstract

President Ronald Reagan was committed to fundamental change in the direction of constitutional decision-making in the federal courts, especially in most civil liberties fields. Toward that end, the Reagan Justice Department pursued an aggressive judicial agenda directed at persuading the courts to reject or limit abortion precedents and constitutional requirements of church-state separation, as well as earlier decisions expanding the rights of suspects and defendants in criminal cases and rulings condoning affirmative action programs. Even the office of Solicitor-General, an official appointed by the president but traditionally removed from politics, was put to the administration’s purposes, to such an extent, in fact, that Rex Lee, Reagan’s first Solicitor-General, resigned from the office in protest. The Reagan White House also took steps to assure the appointment of federal judges who shared the president’s conservative constitutional philosophy. President Bush continued the pattern, although in a more moderate fashion.