In 1997, the American press made note of a crisis over delay in filling vacancies in the lower federal bench.' President Bill Clinton was chastised for selecting nominees too slowly and the Senate Judiciary Committee was particularly criticized for playing politics by delaying confirmations. Each side of the debate agreed that delay in filling lower court vacancies had created a crisis in judicial workload. However, beneath the surface of the 1990s judicial confirmation crisis lurks a wider political debate about the importance of who should staff the federal courts.