Clinton Appoints First Black to 4th Circuit Court

President Clinton, complaining that Republicans have stymied his attempts to diversify the federal bench, bypassed the Senate on Wednesday to appoint the first black judge to the all-white U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

The temporary appointment of Richmond lawyer Roger Gregory lasts a year, but Clinton said he will also formally nominate Gregory to the seat a second time in January, when the new Congress convenes.

The dramatic gesture marks the first time in 20 years that a president has filled a judicial opening with a recess appointment, which allows him to seat a candidate while Congress is out of session.

Clinton had nominated Gregory for the slot in June, but the recommendation languished without hearings or a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The famously conservative appellate court--which serves Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the Carolinas--has a larger minority population than any other circuit but has no minority judges. It was the first court in the country to strike down college scholarships reserved exclusively for blacks. Last year, the court also ruled that Arlington County in Virginia and Montgomery County in Maryland could not consider a student’s race as a basis for admission to a particular school.

“It is unconscionable that the 4th Circuit . . . has never had an African American appellate judge,” Clinton said in an Oval Office ceremony.

The appointment lobs a political hand grenade to Senate GOP leaders, who have faced criticism for blocking the nominations of four blacks, including Gregory, to the Richmond court during Clinton’s term. The Black Congressional Caucus cites studies showing that black judicial nominees waited significantly longer for confirmation hearings since Republicans took control of Congress in 1995.

White House aides were also eager to air the Senate’s record on black judges amid controversy over President-elect George W. Bush’s attorney general nominee, Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), who has been condemned by civil rights groups for torpedoing the nomination of another African American judicial candidate, Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White.