The Pickering Travesty
This week the House will focus on the 2003 Budget Resolution. This measure, featured in last week’s Capitol Hill Round Up, will be debated on the House floor Wednesday. The Senate will continue to focus on the energy bill while the Budget Committee will begin to debate their version of the 2003 Budget Resolution.
In addition to working on these pieces of legislation, all Members will be gearing up for a planned two-week recess. Every year both the House and Senate send Members home for two weeks around Easter. This recess period begins this Friday and will last until April 8th. This provides a good opportunity for the members to meet their constituents and for you to ask them tough questions. If you get an opportunity, check out the CSE Congressional recess document at www.cse.org to see a summary of important issues with a list of recommended questions. With the congressional calendar filling up, this is one of the few opportunities for a face to face encounter with your legislator before the November elections, so use every chance you have!!
In Depth:
Last week the Democrat-controlled Senate hit an all-new low. While this column usually focuses on upcoming issues, the travesty committed by the Senate Judiciary Committee was so egregious as to require scrutiny.
Essentially the issue revolves around the judicial selection process. A time-honored tradition, the President, as is his prerogative, nominates judges to the federal bench and the Senate confirms them. Obviously the judges are not just rubber stamped by the Senate, the candidates first need to prove that they are honest, forthright and will determine the rule of law without prejudice. However, under the Daschle Senate these rules have changed. Since the Democrats are considering Bush’s Republican judges they now assert that they can impose a subjective litmus test for all judicial nominees. Even during times of a Republican Senate and Democrat Presidency, such as under President Clinton, it was understood that a judicial nominees personal positions were not indicative of their rulings and therefore not under consideration for their nominations. Whether pro-life, pro-environment, religious, agnostic, etc. it shouldn’t matter in the nominee’s interpretation of the law; their personal views are just that. But all of that changed last week during the confirmation hearing for Judge Charles Pickering.
Judge Pickering of Mississippi, nominated to serve on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a respected and well-qualified nominee who was unanimously confirmed 12 years ago to the district bench. He enjoys widespread support throughout Mississippi and during his 12 years on the district bench maintained a stellar record. Unfortunately for him, though, the Democrats decided to make his nomination symbolic. They dredged up baseless accusations and cloaked their false attacks in judicious rhetoric. When the Democrats realized that Judge Pickering would win a fair vote on the Senate floor, they determined to stop his nomination in committee. So despite their assertions during previous administrations to the contrary the Democrats voted on March 14th to not let the Pickering nomination leave committee, effectively dooming his chances at a federal judgeship.
With the federal court facing 96 vacancies, more than when President Bush took office, a judicial crisis looms. Without a working judiciary, we cannot provide adequate resources to fight a war on terror and we leave trial lawyers to run amuck, exacerbating the economic downturn and hurting the fragile recovery.
During the Judiciary hearing only Senator Schumer of New York articulated the true reasons for the character assassination of Judge Pickering. He boldly told the Committee and attendees that he felt the federal bench was leaning too far to the right. By confirming more ‘conservative’ judges, he thought it would hurt the left’s ability to legislate from the bench on environmental issues and a woman’s right to choose. While he deserves credit for honesty it still does even begin to make the actions of his colleagues acceptable.
A good man was unjustly attacked and a time-honored tradition lies in shambles. In the meantime it is the American people who suffer while the federal bench continues to be decimated, hurting our ability to effectively fight a comprehensive war on terror and to keep our economy on track.
Action Items:
Call your Senator. Tell him/her that you are sick of the politics in Washington and angry at the actions of the Judiciary Committee. Judicial nominees should not be subjected to a litmus test.
