Synopses & Reviews
The Federal Appointments Process provides a unique, comprehensive overview of the constitutional dynamics and significance of the federal appointments process throughout American history. Michael J. Gerhardt includes each American president’s performance record regarding judicial and nonjudicial appointments, accounts of virtually all the major confirmation contests and controversies, and discussion of relevant legal and constitutional questions.
The Federal Appointments Process is an essential tool for understanding the selection and confirmation of presidential appointments.
“In what only can be described as a scholarly tour de force, Gerhardt encompasses the broad sweep of the American experience to provide a detailed and systematic analysis of the process of selecting and confirming judicial and nonjudicial presidential appointments."—Sheldon Goldman, Political Science Quarterly
"With The Federal Appointments Process, Michael J. Gerhardt has provided the most comprehensive analysis of the politics of appointment and confirmation since the 1953 publication of the classic The Advice and Consent of the Senate.“—Keith E. Whittington, Policy Review
“This book is destined to become the leading scholarly study of the American appointments process. It is comprehensive, eminently reasonable, and beautifully written. Gerhardt has assembled a rich collection of examples and he has persuasively interpreted their significance for American political practice. The Federal Appointments Process will be indispensable to political scientists, historians, and law professors who study the American separation of powers.”—Christopher Eisgruber, Princeton University
“For anyone interested in the appointment process, [this] book is a must, and it provides valuable historical reference for scholars, politicians and nominees alike."—M. Margaret McKeown, Jurist: Books-on-Law
"This book is, without a doubt, the best full-scale treatment of the presidential appointment process that has been done in recent times."—Michael P. Riccards, Perspectives on Political Science
"The subtitle of this encyclopedic study could well be ‘everything you might want to learn about the federal appointments process but did not know enough to ask.’. . . [R]equired reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the federal appointments process."—David H. Rosenbloom, The Journal of American History
Review
andldquo;There is simply no other book available that comprehensively addresses the appointments process with the amount of care and historical detail that Gerhardt provides. Like his previous book on the impeachment process, this will be used for reference and as a jumping-off point for public debate triggered by important political controversies.andrdquo;andmdash;John O. McGinnis, Northwestern University School of Law
Review
andldquo;This book is destined to become the leading scholarly study of the American appointments process. It is comprehensive, eminently reasonable, and beautifully written. Gerhardt has assembled a rich collection of examples and he has persuasively interpreted their significance for American political practice. The Federal Appointments Process will be indispensible to political scientists, historians, and law professors who study the American separation of powers.andrdquo;andmdash;Christopher Eisgruber, Princeton University
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [345]-396) and index.
Synopsis
The history of how judges and others get appointed to federal positions, and the politcal jockeying that has always accompanied the process.
Synopsis
Although the federal appointment of U.S. judges and executive branch officers has consistently engendered controversy, previous studies of the process have been limited to particular dramatic conflicts and have tended to view appointments in a vacuum without regard to other incidents in the process, other legislative matters, or broader social, political, and historical developments.
The Federal Appointments Process fills this gap by providing the first comprehensive analysis of over two hundred years of federal appointments in the United States, revealing crucial patterns of growth and change in one of the most central of our democratic processes.
and#9;Michael J. Gerhardt includes each U.S. presidentandrsquo;s performance record regarding appointments, accounts of virtually all the major confirmation contests, as well as discussion of significant legal and constitutional questions raised throughout U.S. history. He also analyzes recess appointments, the Vacancies Act, the function of nominees in the appointment process, and the different treatment received by judicial and nonjudicial nominations. While discussing the important roles played by media and technology in federal appointments, Gerhardt not only puts particular controversies in perspective but also identifies important trends in the process, such as how leaders of different institutions attempt to protectandmdash;if not expandandmdash;their respective prerogatives by exercising their authority over federal appointments. Employing a newly emerging method of inquiry known as andldquo;historical institutionalismandrdquo;andmdash;in which the ultimate goal is to examine the development of an institution in its entirety and not particular personalities or periods, this book concludes with suggestions for reforms in light of recent controversies springing from the longest delays in history that many judicial nominees face in the Senate.
and#9;Gerhardtandrsquo;s intensive treatment of the subject will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, government, history, and legal studies.
About the Author
Michael J. Gerhardt is Professor of Law at the College of William and Mary School of Law. His other books include The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis and Constitutional Theory: Arguments and Perspectives, each in their second edition.