[3] On December 24, 1995, President Clinton nominated Beaty to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to fill the vacancy created by the decision by Judge James Dickson Phillips Jr. to take senior status.
[5] Clinton renominated Beaty in 1997, but Helms then announced that the court had a light caseload and did not need any more judges.
In addition, Beaty was accused of being an activist judge because while sitting as a visiting judge on a Fourth Circuit panel in 1995, he concurred in a decision overturning the murder conviction of Timothy Scott Sherman of Hickory, Maryland because one juror had visited the crime scene, according to a February 1999 article in the ABA Journal.
[7] The Fourth Circuit seat to which Beaty was nominated remained vacant until August 10, 2010, following the confirmation of James Andrew Wynn On August 5, 1999, President Bill Clinton nominated Wynn, an African American judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, to replace Beaty as his nominee for the open North Carolina seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Former North Carolina Democrat and vice presidential candidate John Edwards claimed Boyle was an opponent of civil rights and disabilities legislation.
[12] On July 17, 2007, Bush nominated Robert J. Conrad Jr. for the seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit[13] to take the place of the retired James Dickson Phillips Jr.[14][15] Despite Republican complaints, he was not given a hearing or vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee headed by Democratic chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy.
On November 4, 2009, President Barack Obama renominated Wynn for the seat on the Fourth Circuit to which he had previously been nominated.