Bush Resends 20 Judicial Nominees; Conservatives Hail List
President Bush on Monday submitted 20 judicial nominees, including seven U.S. Circuit Court nominees whom Democrats filibustered in the last Congress.
President Bush on Monday submitted 20 judicial nominees, including seven U.S. Circuit Court nominees whom Democrats filibustered in the last Congress.
“I'm pleased that the president has renominated these excellent women and men to serve on the federal bench," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican. "I'm hopeful that Democrats will work with me to get up-or-down votes on each nominee.”
While the President’s choice angered many democrats, conservative Christians and republicans hailed the choices and called on the Senate to allow each nominee to at least face an up or down vote.
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"Whether senators love a nominee or not, it's time to vote them up-or-down," said Jan LaRue, chief counsel of Concerned Women for America.
During Bush’s first term, Democrats blocked 10 of his judicial nominees. Additioanlly, more than a dozen were left hanging without a vote when Congress came to a close last year.
Last month, the Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid – D-Nev, told reports that Democrats will filibuster Bush’s nominees again if they are the same ones blocked last year.
"To replay this narrow and completed debate demonstrates the Bush administration's failure to craft a positive agenda for the American people," Reid said yesterday after the renominations were announced.
One option Republicans have to prevent any more filibusters against judicial nominees is to change the Senate rules. A simple majority of 51 votes in the 100-member Senate is needed to change the rules to end filibusters. However, 60 votes are needed to end a filibuster and bring a nominee up for a confirmation vote.
Republicans currently control the Senate with 55 seats – four more than last year, and have said they expect to gather the 51 votes to change the rules.
CWA’s LaRue encouraged Republicans to take any steps needed to end the “obstructionist” tactics to keep the nominees from being voted on.
"There's only one reason the minority obstructionists are employing the filibuster and that's because they know they will lose if they permit the majority of senators who want to vote to vote," LaRue added. "That's the nuclear option that needs to stop. When it comes to the Constitution, these obstructionists would rather abuse than lose."
"Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) says he has the 51 votes needed to change the filibuster rule, and he shouldn't hesitate to do so."
Tony Perkins, the president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, also explained that the critical judicial nominees hang on the actions of the Republicans.
“Today President Bush re-nominated 20 of the well-qualified candidates who suffered through a vicious interrogation by Senators Ted Kennedy, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer and others who perfected character assassination in their attempt to hold firm on their pro-abortion, anti-religious litmus test,” wrote Perkins.
“We need not ask the President's nominees to go another round in the name of the very "process" if the outcome is going to be the same. The Democrats have said they will obstruct the nominations again; the only unknown is whether the Republicans will preserve the "process" of the Senate or prevail in their constitutional duty to the American people,” he continued.
Conservatives, including FRC’s Perkins and the American Center for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow, have listed the election of Judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals as top legislative priorities that will be pursued in the 109th congress.
The following is the list of 12 nominees sent by Bush to the U.S> Court of Appeals:
• 4th Circuit: Terrence W. Boyle and William James Haynes II.
• 5th Circuit: Priscilla Richman Owen.
• 6th Circuit: David W. McKeague, Susan Bieke Neilson, Henry W. Saad, and Richard A. Griffin;
• 9th Circuit: William Gerry Myers III.
• 11th Circuit: William H. Pryor, who received a recess appointment from Bush after Democrats blocked his nomination. That appointment expires at the end of this year.
• District of Columbia Circuit: Janice Rogers Brown, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Thomas B. Griffith.
The following are the eight U.S. District Court positions listed by state:
• J. Michael Seabright, Hawaii.
• Sean F. Cox, Thomas L. Ludington and Daniel P. Ryan, Eastern District, Michigan.
• Peter G. Sheridan, New Jersey.
• Paul A. Crotty, Southern District, New York.
• James C. Dever III, Eastern District, North Carolina.
• Robert J. Conrad, Western District, North Carolina.
