During President Bill Clinton's second term of office, he nominated twenty-two people for nineteen different federal appellate judgeships but the nominees were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Three of the nominees who were not processed (Christine Arguello, Andre M. Davis and S. Elizabeth Gibson) were nominated after July 1, 2000, the traditional start date of the unofficial Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year. The Democrats claim that Senate Republicans of the 106th Congress on purpose tried to keep open particular judgeships as a political maneuver to allow a future Republican president to fill them. Of the nineteen seats in question, three were eventually filled with different Clinton nominees, fourteen were later filled with Republican nominees by President George W. Bush and two are still open. Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the United States Senate during the 110th Congress, and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee under Reid, have repeatedly mentioned the controversy over President Clinton's court of appeals nominees during the present controversy involving the confirmation of any more Republican court of appeals nominees during the last two years of Bush's second term. Senate Republicans of the 110th Congress claim that Democrats are refusing to confirm certain longstanding Bush nominees in order to allow a future Democratic president in 2009 to fill those judgeships.

List of failed nominees

• United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• New Jersey seat - Robert Raymar (judgeship later filled by Clinton nominee Maryanne Trump Barry)
• New Jersey seat - Stephen Orlofsky (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Michael Chertoff)
• Pennsylvania seat - Robert J. Cindrich (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee D. Brooks Smith)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Maryland seat - Andre M. Davis (judgeship still open)
• North Carolina seat - James A. Beaty, Jr., followed by James A. Wynn, Jr. (judgeship still open)
• North Carolina seat - S. Elizabeth Gibson (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Allyson Kay Duncan)
• Virginia seat - J. Richard Leonard (judgeship later filled by Clinton nominee Roger Gregory after being renominated by Bush in 2001)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Louisiana seat - Alston Johnson (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Edith Brown Clement)
• Texas seat - Jorge Rangel, followed by Enrique Moreno (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Priscilla Owen)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Michigan seat - Helene White (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Richard A. Griffin; White was eventually confirmed to the Sixth Circuit when renominated by Bush in 2008)
• Michigan seat - Kathleen McCree Lewis (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Susan Bieke Neilson)
• Ohio seat - Kent Markus (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Jeffrey S. Sutton)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Iowa seat - Bonnie Campbell (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Michael J. Melloy)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• California seat - Barry Goode (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Carlos T. Bea)
• Hawaii seat - James E. Duffy, Jr. (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Richard Clifton)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Colorado seat - James Lyons, followed by Christine Arguello (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Timothy M. Tymkovich; Arguello was eventually confirmed to a district court seat when nominated by Bush in 2008)

• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Florida seat - Charles "Bud" Stack (judgeship later filled by Clinton nominee Stanley Marcus)

• United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
• Elena Kagan (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee John G. Roberts, Jr.)
• Allen Snyder (judgeship later filled by Bush nominee Thomas B. Griffith)

References

• http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/05/06/clinton.judge/index.html
• http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE1DB1439F932A35754C0A9669C8B63