ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief mention of President Jimmy Carter's merit selection and judicial diversity commissions for federal circuit court appointments. It reveals that despite coming to the Senate with a strong presumption of competence, his nominees to the lower federal courts were among the first to face the "modern" era of politicized scrutiny. The chapter then reiterates some of the most important accomplishments of Ronald Reagan in this area and reviews the template he put in place. It delineates the "how" to effectively staff the courts, with recommendations for adapting the twin, core components of candidate screening and executive staffing to the president's own individual circumstances. Reagan's most important immediate precedent in the design of the screening and staffing for judicial selection was Jimmy Carter and his conscious campaign to remake the lower federal courts. Democratic partisans may find more urgency in the project of shaping the composition of the federal courts.
