President Obama lags behind George W. Bush when it comes to leaving his imprint on the nation’s federal courts of appeals, a Brookings Institution report has found. The federal courts have more judicial vacancies now than at the beginning of the Obama administration, Brookings fellow Russell Wheeler wrote. Republican appointees represented 60 percent of the federal bench at the end of Bush’s time in office, but Democratic appointees comprised 52 percent at the end of 2013, he said.
GUN CONTROL SUSTAINED
A federal judge on Dec. 31 upheld most of the provisions of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature gun-control measure, enacted following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre in December 2012. Chief Judge William Skretny in Buffalo said the state presented “considerable evidence” that its regulation of so-called “assault weapons” and large-capacity magazines “is substantially related to the achievement of an important governmental interest” and did not violate the Second Amendment. However, he struck down a provision limiting magazines to seven rounds.
