"[90] In March 2001, the Bush administration stopped relying on the American Bar Association (ABA) for the screening process for qualified judicial candidates.
[92] This initial group of nominees included Roger Gregory, a Clinton recess-appointed judge to the Fourth Circuit, as a peace offering to Senate Democrats.
[93][94] Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said that the White House was "trying to create the most ideological bench in the history of the nation.
On October 7, 2004, just prior to the presidential election, Senate Democrats issued a statement complete with statistics arguing that they were not obstructing Bush nominees in any systemic way.
With President Bush's re-election and the Republicans picking up further Senate seats (55–45) in the 109th Congress, the "nuclear option" became a more viable strategy to ensure confirmation.
[100] In addition, the senators in the group agreed not to block future judicial nominees with filibusters except in cases involving "extraordinary circumstances".
As a direct result of the deal, the two filibustered nominees not mentioned in it (David McKeague and Richard Allen Griffin) were confirmed, as was Thomas B. Griffith, the person nominated to replace Miguel Estrada after his withdrawal.
Although Boyle, Myers, Haynes and Wallace were renominated, again no action was taken on them in the Senate Judiciary Committee before the break, and their nominations were sent back a second time to the White House on September 29.
[103] After the November 7, 2006 election in which Democrats picked up six additional Senate seats, President Bush again renominated the candidates whose nominations had been sent back to him in September.
The Republican Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, however, said that he would not process these nominees during the lame duck session of the 109th Congress.
At the beginning of the 110th Congress in January 2007, President Bush did not renominate Boyle, Myers, Haynes and Wallace in an attempt at reconciliation with the Democrats.
In 2005, Cox was nominated and confirmed as Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a position he held until the end of the Bush administration in January 2009.
The Maryland seat that Keisler had been considered for was to remain open the entirety of Bush's presidency with the failed nominations of Claude Allen and Rod J. Rosenstein and would be filled by Obama nominee Andre M. Davis.