[JURIST] Vice President Dick Cheney told [transcript; recorded audio] the Federalist Society [advocacy website] annual meeting in Washington Friday that the Bush administration plans to continue nominating conservative judges to the federal courts notwithstanding new Democratic control of Congress and expectations on both sides of the aisle that more moderate candidates might be put forward [JURIST report] after the mid-term elections. "Federal judges," Cheney declared:

are appointed for life and serve outside the democratic process. Therefore they have a duty to pursue no agenda or platform — and to leave politics to those who run for office and answer to the people. As a great American put it, judges are to be "servants of the law, not the other way around." And those are the words of Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the many superb nominees chosen by President George W. Bush…Throughout our time in office, the President has selected judges who understand their role in the constitutional system. And I assure you, nothing that has happened in the last two weeks will change his commitment to nominating first-rate talent like John Roberts and Sam Alito.

Earlier this week the White House renominated [JURIST report] a slate of six candidates for federal appeals court judgeships, at least four of whom Democrats have already rejected [JURIST report]. Among the renominees are Peter Keisler, a founding member of the conservative Federalist Society put forward for the DC Circuit. AP has more.