CSE Calls on Senate Judiciary Committee to Approve Miguel Estrada for Full Senate Vote

Today, Citizens for a Sound Economy called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to allow for a full Senate vote on Miguel Estrada, nominee for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Miguel Estrada is a much respected and qualified nominee who would well serve the federal judiciary and the American people.

Unfortunately, stonewalling by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and highly polemic rhetoric by committee members and liberal interest groups threaten to derail Mr. Estrada’s nomination.

CSE President and CEO Paul Beckner had these comments:

“It’s is clear to me that Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have placed their ideology before the nation’s interests. Nominee after nominee for the federal bench have become hostages to the committee, its chairman, and liberal special interest groups.

“President Bush has nominated many well qualified judicial candidates such as Charles Pickering, Priscilla Owen, and Michael McConnell. Unfortunately, they are either subjected to waiting an inordinate amount of time for a hearing, or worse, finding themselves on the other end of ideologically charged rhetoric that obscures and twists their judicial record.

“Today, the committee has before it a supremely qualified candidate for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Miguel Estrada. To deny Mr. Estrada a full Senate vote would nullify his record as Solicitor General under the Clinton administration and the endorsement of the American Bar Association. Moreover, predictable stonewalling by Senator Leahy further erodes the federal judiciary’s ability to handle the cases before it, as open seats on the bench continue to remain vacant.”

“It’s time for the Committee to place the interests of the nation before its own political purposes, and allow a full Senate hearing on Miguel Estrada.”