CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
April 10, 2008 – 6:34 p.m.
Senate Tiff Over Judges Gets Personal
By Keith Perine and Seth Stern, CQ Staff
Senate Republicans are threatening to directly retaliate against Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., if he does not send more appellate court nominations to the full Senate.
GOP lawmakers are fuming about the panel’s pace in dealing with those nominees over the course of the 110th Congress. They blame Leahy, who has held a committee vote on just one nominee this year.
Republicans said Thursday that they might block one of Leahy’s priorities, a bill (
“There is a growing movement in the Republican caucus to hold up legislation if we cannot move in any other way to get justice on the confirmation of these judges,” Arlen Specter , R-Pa., said on the floor. He identified the patent bill as the first potential hostage.
Leahy said he thought the Republican protest effort was “greatly misplaced” because of other pressing problems facing the Senate. He also observed that the patent bill was stalled anyway.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl , R-Ariz., told reporters that Republicans might target other bills Leahy has sponsored.
Even as the Republicans made their threats, the Senate moved toward its first appellate court confirmation this year. The Senate by voice vote confirmed Catharina Haynes to a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the seventh circuit court judge confirmed in the 110th Congress. The Judiciary Committee approved the Haynes nomination April 3.
Ten other appellate nominees are awaiting committee action, including seven candidates for seats deemed “judicial emergencies” by the federal judiciary. Democrats would have to allow confirmation votes on most, if not all, of the 10 in order to satisfy the Republicans.
Kyl argued on the Senate floor that it was not good politics for either party to put a stranglehold on judicial nominations because the precedent could come back to haunt them when a president of the rival party is elected.
Democrats have argued that when Republicans controlled the Senate, they were at least as guilty of bottling up President Bill Clinton’s judicial nominees.
“Republican senators have many questions to answer before they level accusations of any kind,” said Leahy.
Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., said he hoped the Senate “might confirm the average [number of nominations] that has gone on in years past without a lot of political bickering,” but later added that Democrats would not make any specific numerical commitment.
Home-State Backing
Senate Tiff Over Judges Gets Personal
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., pushed for hearings on two 4th Circuit nominees: Robert J. Conrad Jr. of North Carolina and Steve A. Matthews of South Carolina. McConnell noted that Conrad and Matthews have the backing of both of their respective home-state senators. That is important because Leahy is observing a Senate tradition whereby nominees do not advance without the consent of both home-state senators.
“It’s beginning to look like [the home-state] criterion is being selectively applied,” McConnell said.
Several of the pending nominees are from states represented by Democratic senators who don’t necessarily back the choices; they are thus unlikely to be acted on by the Judiciary Committee.
That could lead to more bickering, and perhaps a blockade against more of Leahy’s legislative wish list, including an identity theft bill (
The GOP threat regarding the patent bill may be meaningless, given the trouble Leahy has had even getting it ready for floor consideration. Leahy has been trying to negotiate with Specter and Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah, regarding the latest version of the bill. Specter has objected to the wording of a provision that would change how damages are awarded in patent infringement lawsuits.
Leahy signaled Thursday that his negotiations with Specter over the damages provision had stalled.
“I’m not going to be able to pass it without the ranking member, and the ranking member is opposed to it,” Leahy said. “So the bill is dead.”
But if the patent bill does somehow advance and Leahy does not yield on judges, he is likely to lose the support of Hatch, his lead Republican cosponsor. Hatch indicated he would put loyalty to the Republican caucus on judges above his desire to get a patent bill passed if it came to that.
He said Leahy has accepted his language for a provision on procedures for determining “inequitable conduct” on the part of patent applicants who file misleading statements or omit material with the intent to deceive the patent office. But Leahy’s concession could count for little in the end.
“The judges are so doggone important, I’d do almost anything to get us off that anti-judges kick,” Hatch said. “I will support my caucus.”
Comments
The Senate GOP seems determined to instigate an election-year battle over the issue of judges – a particular favorite of their conservative base. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote an opinion piece for The National Review last week in which he claimed that "at both stages in the confirmation process, the Judiciary Committee and the Senate floor, Democrats are failing to meet both historical and their own standards." Sen. Specter spoke with the Wall Street Journal editorial board last Wednesday to articulate his plan to initiate "a series of procedural stalls that would make it next to impossible for the Senate to get anything done." Senate Republicans lob quite a few stones from their glass house, bemoaning the actions of Senate Democrats as politicizing the process when it is the Bush administration and its allies that treat judicial selection as a take-no-prisoners item on a political agenda. It is not Senate Democrats who have threatened to grind the nation's business to a halt because they aren't getting their way. It is not Senate Democrats who use the federal bench as red meat issue for their base. This latest outburst is nothing more than sound and fury signifying the arrival of an election year. If anyone is looking for a good progressive source of information on judicial selection/confirmation and the politicization of justice in general, check out the Justice Watch blog at http://afjjusticewatch.blogspot.com/
It's the senate, along with the house, democrats who have done nothing since gaining control. They are just stalling assuming they wil gain total control after the November elections. They'll do about as much as the republicans did when they had total control, absolutely nothing for the people, everything for the party. God help us. As for leaky leahy, another poster child for term limits and a total revamping of the congress.
Simply another example lof the GOP crybaby, spoiled brat, "We want it all, whether in the majority or not" mentality. Let's remember when they controlled the Judiciary Committee when Clinton was president. And how they railed against filibusters. But, wait, now that they're in the minority, ALL nominees must be considered and - by the way - filibusters are good things. Here's hoping that following the 2008 elections, the spoiled Rovian/Bush brats will become a permanent minority.
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