1.   Another Ninth Circuit court nominee, Raymond Fisher, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday.

2.   Clinton and Gore urged the Senate to confirm more federal court nominees.

3.   He criticized the GOP-controlled Senate for its glacial pace at confirming federal court nominees.

4.   Nobody can predict how any court nominee will vote after being confirmed.

5.   The official, who insisted on anonymity, also said the agreement explicitly cedes to Gorton the authority to choose an appeals court nominee.

6.   The partisan fights on Capitol Hill over the ideology of prospective court nominees have further diminished the respect those jobs used to command.

7.   Those groups would surely line up the same way against a very conservative Bush court nominee, and make many of the same arguments.

8.   They insisted that Republicans agree to action on two long-stalled appeals court nominees, too.

9.   U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., has blocked three black court nominees from North Carolina for that seat in the last seven years.