A snooty waiter might condescend to serve you dinner at a fancy restaurant, meaning that he'd consider himself far too important to carry out the mundane task of delivering your hamburger and fries. You might have noticed that condescend contains the word descend, meaning to move down from a higher place. You can think of condescend as lowering yourself to do a task that you feel is far beneath you. Kings and queens would never condescend to do their own laundry at the palace, for example. If they even knew how to do the laundry, you can be sure they'd do it in a condescending, or superior, way to let everyone know that housework is no task for a monarch.
Appointment of federal judges is a two-step process involving both the Executive and Legislative Branches of government. The President (Executive Branch) nominates someone for a vacancy on the bench, and the Senate (Legislative Branch) approves or rejects the nomination to complete the appointment. The executive branch (specifically the President) appoints federal judges subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Term Appointment. Term appointments are the most common. Term federal judicial law clerks serve on an appointment limited to a total of four years (accounting for all term law clerk service completed on or after September 18, 2007), but are generally one or two years in duration. Some judges appoint term law clerks for eighteen months.