"These committees are made up of highly regarded attorneys who know their legal communities well," Feinstein said in explaining her commitment to getting input from both major parties. "I am confident that the committee members will do their utmost to help me identify the most qualified candidates."
That should help limit Republican opposition to Obama's nominees "as long as people understand that the bipartisanship is going to be in the vetting, not the appointments," said Wheeler, the Brookings analyst. "I hope nobody's got their hopes up that Obama is going to be appointing 50% Republican judges."
Obama will put a premium on diversity, judicial analysts overwhelmingly predict. Of special concern to those who want to see more women and minorities on the federal bench is the Northern District of California, where all but three of the 14 judges are white and there are no Asian Americans or Latinos despite their significant populations in the region.
"I think that is an abysmal record. I can't say enough about how outrageous that is," said Niki Solis, president-elect of the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Assn.
While Obama's campaign rallying cry for public service is expected to prompt civic-minded lawyers and legal scholars to apply for federal judgeships, some analysts worry that the best legal minds may be discouraged by the courts' noncompetitive salaries and crushing workloads.
Federal district judges earn $169,300 a year and circuit judges $179,500, both fractions of what a top lawyer can earn in private practice.
"I don't know that the prestige and even the interesting work can compensate for the financial sacrifices judges are being asked to make," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Loyola Law School.
A bill that died in the last Congress would have created 14 new appeals court judgeships and 50 for district benches. It has been revived in the current legislative session but faces an uphill battle amid demands for funding of jobs likely to stimulate the economy.
Court-watchers expect the bill to eventually pass due to the staggering case backlogs. The 9th Circuit, which includes California, is the slowest, taking 20 months on average to decide an appeal.
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carol.williams@latimes.com
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Makeup of California federal courts
Six judicial vacancies exist in the U.S. district courts in California. Of the judges now serving, seven more were appointed by Republicans than by Democrats, and many were appointed by President George W. Bush. Here is a breakdown:
*--* District Republican-appointed Democrat-appointed Vacancies (by George W. Bush) Central* 14 (13) 11 3 Southern 9 (7) 4 0 Northern 4 (1) 8 2 Eastern 4 (3) 1 1 *--*
*Includes Los Angeles and surrounding counties.
Note: There are also two vacancies in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction covers California and other Western states.
Source: Federal Judicial Center's Biographical Directory of Federal Judges
-- Carol J. Williams
