The President and the Judiciary

Abstract

Where the president’s relationships with Congress, the media, the public, and the bureaucracy all take daily nurturing, the relationship between the president and the judicial branch of government takes far less care and feeding. Of course, there are circumstances that influence the interactions of the two branches in either a positive or negative way. The most significant manner in which a president can influence his or her relationship with the judiciary is through the appointments process, where he or she attempts to fill a vacancy on a court with an individual who most represents the president’s thinking on policy, the law, and the Constitution.