Let the Confirmation Process Begin

When Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist lamented on the pace of judicial confirmations during the 107th Congress, you knew that something was wrong with the process in the Senate. Rehnquist solemnly wrote in his yearly review of the judiciary: in “times such as these, the role of the courts becomes even more important in order to enforce the rule of law. To continue functioning effectively and efficiently, however, the courts must be appropriately staffed. This means that…judicial vacancies must be timely filled with well-qualified candidates.” Moreover, when the editors at Washington Post bemoaned the dawdling rate at which President Bush’s judicial nominees were voted on — let alone scheduled for a hearing in the Judiciary Committee – it’s a good indicator that someone or party stonewalled and hijacked the confirmation process.

We can get into the numbers and percentages of those confirmed and those given hearings vis-à-vis past administrations but that’s not the point. The reality is, Democratic Senators stood in the way of a fully functioning and staffed judiciary system capable of adjudicating the important legal issues and lawsuits in an expeditious manner for Joe Taxpayer.

November 5th not only changed the control of the Senate, but also the judicial confirmation process. With the Senate now in Republican control and the Judiciary gavel in Senator Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) grip, you can bet that hearings and confirmations will move apace. In fact, Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) has stated that within three days of the 108th Congress convening (that would be January 10), the first round of votes for those nominees that have had hearings but not voted on will proceed, to be followed by 2 more days of votes before the month is out.

Sure to be expedited is Miguel Estrada, an immigrant from Honduras who aced his way through Harvard law school, clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and worked as the Justice Department’s Solicitor General in the Clinton Administration. Simply put, this nominee for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is highly qualified for the position, and he should be voted out of committee favorably and confirmed by the Senate.

However, liberals, especially Senator Schumer, beg to differ. They like to enunciate juicy quotes that don’t stand up to thorough research. Take the instance of Estrada’s former supervisor at the Justice Department, Paul Bender. Bender once told the Los Angeles Times that Estrada was so “ideologically driven that he couldn’t be trusted to state the law in a fair, neutral way.” In addition, as the Washington Post printed, Bender was “worried [that Estrada’s personal] views would spill into rulings if Mr. Estrada is asked to decide matters involving defendants’ rights, affirmative action and other controversial subjects … ‘I think Estrada lacks the judgment and he is too much of an ideologue to be an appeals court judge’.”

Yet, in numerous performance evaluations, Bender’s effusive encomium for his former employee shreds all of his credibility as an objective evaluator of the nominee. Case in point: Estrada, “states the operative facts and applicable law completely and persuasively…with concern for fairness, clarity, simplicity, and conciseness,” says Bender in one of Miguel’s evaluations.

Notwithstanding Senator Charles Schumer’s ideologically motivated attack on Estrada during his hearing in late September that served no purpose but to publicly excoriate him, Estrada should sail through the Senate. Why? Because he’s well qualified, and there are too few extremist Democrats like Schumer willing to waste political capital to stop the confirmation.

The American Bar Association, not exactly a bastion of conservative thought and action, gave Estrada a “well qualified” rating; both the Hispanic Business Council and Hispanic Business Roundtable have praised his qualifications; and, the Hispanic National Bar Association supports him for the Circuit Court seat. It’s hard to see how Democrats would want to bar Estrada from the courts.

He’s been nominated; he’s able; he’s qualified; now he needs to be confirmed. Senator Kyl is right to get the confirmation process going as swiftly as possible. When Congress adjourned for the year, there were still too many judicial vacancies, which led to overburdened judges with dockets either piling up or suspended. Its time for Democrats to stop the stonewalling tactics with President Bush’s judicial nominees; but with the Republican control of the committee, they may not have a choice.