Bush's Appellate Judges Could Tip Court Balances
The Wall St. Journal has an article (online for free) on an overlooked issue in the judicial nominations fight: Bush's picks could tip the balance in many circuits. To me, this is an additional reason the compromise being proposed by moderate Senators should fail. The Journal reports:
Janice Rogers Brown, for instance, has made scathing assessments about the reach of the federal government -- and she is nominated to the appellate court that handles the majority of appeals of government-agency rulings.
William Myers, who has advocated against environmental groups, is in line to join the appellate court that sorts through land-use battles.
William Pryor, who called a section of the Voting Rights Act "an expensive burden that has far outlived its usefulness" -- may be headed for an appellate court with jurisdiction over parts of the old Confederacy.
The compromise under consideration would result in an up or down vote on these three nominees - and possibly all 7 of the contested nominees - in order to preserve the right to filibuster "in extreme circumstances" through 2006. Since Republicans have a majority in the Senate, this means certain confirmation for these nominees.
More from the Wall St. Journal article:
Democrats say the seven blocked Bush nominees could start a conservative shift in courts that aren't already tilted that way. "Balance on the court matters to us," said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. "I've always felt a good court would have one [Justice Antonin] Scalia and one [former Justice William J.] Brennan and not five of either," he added, referring to both a conservative and liberal Supreme Court justice.
The Journal also provides these quotes from some of Janice Rogers Brown's speeches:
"[We] no longer find slavery abhorrent," Ms. Brown said in one speech. "We embrace it. We demand more. Big government is not just the opiate of the masses. It is ... the drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms, for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers and militant senior citizens."
In another, she spoke against what she called the "revolution of 1937" when the Supreme Court began upholding New Deal legislation, calling it "the triumph of our socialist revolution."
Here's how the nuclear option will unfold if the compromise is rejected.
| < Tillman Parents Lash Out at Military | Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan > |
