[2] On May 24, 1983, President Ronald Reagan nominated Bowman to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to fill a seat vacated by Judge J. Smith Henley.

Notably, Bowman authored the Eighth Circuit's opinion in Clinton v. Jones that held the Constitution does not protect the President from federal civil litigation involving actions committed before entering office.

[6] However, alongside devout Mormon John Clifford Wallace, Bowman was viewed by the Senate’s Democratic majority as the most controversial amongst the thirteen or fourteen nominees proposed by President Reagan after Robert Bork was rejected.

[7] Bowman was viewed as aggressively anti-labor and consistently opposed to the rights of women and prisoners,[8] and attracted further controversy because he stated that he believed laws against insider trading should be repealed.

[9] White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker heard objections to Bowman from Joe Biden and Robert Byrd on October 26, 1987,[7] and with Republicans needing Democratic support to prevent a repeat of Bork’s debacle, the seat ultimately went to Judge Anthony Kennedy.