The White House issued a press release yesterday announcing that it was renominating the slate of judges not acted upon or voted down in committee by the previous "Ralph Neas" Judiciary Committee. Showing the level of unbiased reporting that we have all grown to expect from the paper of record, the New York Times offers the following editorial headline for its "news" story about the nominations: "President Renominating Federal Judge Lott Backed." (The reference is to Judge Pickering, who was nominated to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and who was rejected in committee last term on a straight party-line vote.) One wonders how often the Times will be able to recycle this style of headline: "President Supports Tax Plan Lott Backed;" or "President Comes Out in Favor of Postal Subcommittee Appropriation Backed by Lott." Perhaps Senators will respond in kind. For example: "Senator X supports an education bill backed by the Times!" Just a thought.
Are there any vacancies expected on the ninth circuit? Wouldn’t that be rich? I just feel sorry for the first conservative judge there. What a lonely existance that would probably be.
Hey there are a couple of conservatives on the 9th Circuit. Alex Kozinski is one that I can name off the top of my head. There a few others, but unfortuantely they are in the minority. Maybe that will change.
You have to love the pained expressions of "disappointment" from liberals (e.g., Schumer, Leahy, Wade Henderson, et al.) to the effect that "we had hoped, especially following the painful Lott episode, that the President would avoid inviting this sort of divisiveness, blah, blah, blah, but since he has, we have no choice but to fight the nomination in any way possible [read: filibuster]." Translation: Stop us before we demogogue again! I say, bring the filibuster on -- they have already overplayed the "Lott" card, and I think they will stand down long before it gets to that. This will be an important prelude to the coming Supreme Court appointment(s). Bill
John:
One of the judicial nominees renominated yesterday was for the Ninth Circuit. The nominees is Jay Bybee, who last I heard was serving at the DOJ. He has been selected to fill the seat of Judge Hug in Reno, NV. While the Ninth Circuit is slanted heavily to the left, there are a few conservative judges. PChuck mentioned Kozinski, to which I would add (off the top of my head) Judge Kleinfeld from Alaska and Judge Diarmuid (what a great name) O’Scannlain.