We were very surpised to learn today that 43% of those appointed to federal appeals courts in the U.S. have no prior judicial experience .

What's more, there is a racial imbalance in that a recent study shows that:

....white judges - and particularly white male judges - are much more likely to be named to the circuit appeals courts without prior judicial experience.

Bush's judicial nominees have been more likely than those of past Presidents to have prior judicial experience. To date, 61% of those he's nominated have served as judges.

...Historically we've been moving more and more towards this notion of a career judiciary," said [Elliott] Slotnick, a political science professor at Ohio State University. "Republicans in particular have been very interested in people with judicial experience or prosecutorial experience."

[thanks to Matthew at Untelevised.Org for the link]