Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has released a statement acknowledging that he said he would never filibuster a judicial nominee, but that he never meant it that way. Some Republicans have been taking a quote out of context from Senator Leahy from June 1998 about judicial nominations, replacing his actual words with an ellipse, then distributing […]
National Review's Byron York reports that Senate Democrats have missed another opportunity to ask circuit court nominee Miguel Estrada any new questions. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales had offered Democrats (actually, any Senator for that matter) another opportunity to submit written questions to Estrada with a deadline of last Friday. Estrada would answer them over […]
...but I don't think it'll fly. One of the "Top 10" Letters to the Weekly Standard's online edition (#4), suggests that the Senate's filibuster of Miguel Estrada may be unconstitutional. The filibuster rule (part of Congress's Constitutional right to organize) prevents Congress from carrying out its Constitutional mandate to advise and consent (Terry Eastland, Filibustering […]
Matt Evans over at The Buck Stops Here has been digging around in the People For the American Way's Web site and came across this link. What it allows you to do is send a fax to certain senators -- at PFAW's expense. The text is a form letter urging a filibuster of Republican judicial […]
The New York Times editorial page, when it comes to taking positions on judicial nominees, now appears to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ralph Neas and People for the American Way. The Times uses lame and specious arguments to attack Estrada, a Latino American with a brilliant legal resume and an inspiring story, as being […]
Mark the date and time! Today, probably for the first and last time, I agree with: The New York TImes editorial page and Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer. Everyone, take a deep breath -- I have not been taken over by pod people. The issue is Congress' desire to create perpetual […]
Well, last week when President Bush resubmitted the name of Judge Charles Pickering to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the cries of racist erupted from the Democrats. Their charge was mainly based on a 1994 cross burning case where Pickering sought a lighter sentence for a convicted cross burner because his cohorts -- including […]
Predictably, today's New York Times comes out with another scathing attack on Judge Charles Pickering. Pickering, who was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee in the last Congress on a party-line vote, is from Mississippi, the same state as "segregationist" Sen. Trent Lott. The main charge against Pickering has been his "racial insensitivity" regarding a […]
There's a couple of pieces of news today on what appears to be a new religious test for office. While liberal commentators often like to compare religious conservatives to the Taliban, it's the liberals who are acting like the Taliban. If you fail to meet their requirements (atheism or "culturally" Christian -- that is, you […]
Today's winner of the "Idiot on the Bench" award goes to Ninth Circuit (surprise!) Judge J. Clifford Wallace. Wallace turned down an appeal for asylum from a Chinese couple who feared (rightly) forced sterilization if returned to their country. Wallace wrote in his opinion: While one may condemn the way Xu (Ming Li) was treated […]