Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Florida

Re: nomination of federal judges

Yes, all federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate, and hold office for life (unless impeached). The same process applies to Supreme Court Justices.

Re: nomination of federal judges

The process you describe is how Supreme Court justices and judges of the District Courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal are appointed, and all of them have life tenure (but can be impeached). Different processes apply to appointments of Bankruptcy judges, Immigration judges, Administrative Law judges, Magistrates and some other judicial officers. The term "federal judge" typically refers to judicial officers on the Supreme, Circuit or District courts and not to these other officers.

While the process of appointing Supreme Court justices is mechanically the same as for District and Circuit judges, Supreme Court nominees are scrutinized in much greater depth. As a practical matter, individual senators are often able to choose who gets District Court appointments in their home states and fellow senators will only intervene in unusual circumstances. By contrast, every senator will scrutinize each nominee to the Supreme Court because of the greater impact and visibility of those appointees. The Senate and the President often battle rather fiercely over these appointments when the President is not a member of the same party as the Senate majority.

After the most recent election, the Senate will be more amenable to the President's nominees. Two current conservative Supreme Court justices are widely believed to want to retire and many observers think they simply waited until there was a Republican Senate so that President Bush would have an easier time replacing them with fellow conservatives.

Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your perspective, of course.