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DinoDoc
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AECCP loves Democracy
Sep 1999
time: 23:25
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quote:
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 6, 2003; Page A04
Senate Democrats expressed what their leader described as "overwhelming opposition" to the nomination of conservative Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada to the appellate court in Washington, but appeared undecided on whether to block the judicial nomination through delaying tactics.
Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), flanked by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other Latino groups, drew battle lines for the year's first major judicial controversy as the Senate opened debate on Estrada's nomination -- a debate that could stretch into next week or longer.
But Daschle said Democrats would probably not decide until "sometime next week" how far they are willing to go to defeat the nomination of the Harvard-educated immigrant from Honduras. Estrada is viewed by many as a possible first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court.
In a hearing last year on his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Estrada, 42, declined to answer questions about his views or provide legal memoranda he wrote as a Justice Department official, giving the Senate no basis for judgment, Daschle said.
"If he cannot provide informed consent, I do not see how we can provide our consent at all," Daschle said. Either Estrada "knows nothing or he feels he needs to hide something," he said, and "neither is acceptable when it comes to a lifetime position on the second highest court in the land."
Republicans, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), have said Democrats are upset because they can't find ammunition to use against a conservative nominee.
Daschle's comments at a news conference with the anti-Estrada Hispanic groups came after the Democrats' weekly luncheon, which was devoted in large part to discussing the nomination.
Only Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) spoke in favor of confirming Estrada. But senators said a significant number of Democrats appeared to have some reservations about trying to kill the nomination by invoking rules allowing unlimited debate, which can be cut off only by a vote of 60 of the 100 senators. Democrats, who have 48 seats and the support of one independent, would have to produce 41 votes to sustain a filibuster.
Daschle said he did not know whether there are 41 votes against Estrada, noting that the issue was not familiar to many members of the caucus.
Meanwhile, Republicans have indicated they will make it as difficult as possible for Democrats if they try to kill the Estrada nomination. They have served notice that Democrats must be prepared for vote after vote on whether to cut off a filibuster, along with a series of speeches accusing Democrats of trying to kill a high-profile nomination of a successful young Hispanic lawyer with a conservative outlook. At the same time, they appeared in no hurry to begin the voting, preferring to let the Democrats "stew awhile," as a GOP strategist put it.
The way was cleared for action by the full Senate last week when the Judiciary Committee, in its first action on a judicial nomination since Republicans took control of the Senate last month, approved Estrada's nomination by a party-line vote of 10 to 9.
In their criticism of Estrada, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.) and two other members of the Hispanic Caucus, all of them Democrats, said Estrada lacks judicial experience and has demonstrated no concern for the Hispanic community.
"He simply shares a surname," Menendez said. |
What is your opinion on this? Is it a serious threat? If so, how likely is it to backfire on the Democrats?
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Jon Miller
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our minorities held to higher standards than caucasions?
is every justice to be expected to demonstrate concern for the hispanic community?
what has he done wrong?
Jon Miller
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MBD
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This isn't even a Supreme Court nomination. I gotta believe the Democrats are doing this mostly to make a point about how far they're willing to go when a SC vacancy occurs (most likely in the next few years).
That said, I think it's an incredibly dumb tactic -- both in the short term and (probably) in the long term -- to appear to base your opposition on the feeling that this Honduran immigrant "isn't Hispanic enough".
The release of the internal memos that the Democrats are demanding is unprecented, and opposed in a letter by every living current and former solicitor general.
And it's amazing that this nomination has been pending in the Senate for two years, most of time under Democratic control.
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DinoDoc
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AECCP loves Democracy
Sep 1999
time: 23:25
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quote:
Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Bah, for something to have happen the Democrats would have to borrow a backbone. |
Looks like they actually did grow a backbone, Che:
quote:
Dems: 'We will not relent' on filibuster Court nominee's files withheld
By Joan Biskupic
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- For years now, presidential appointments to federal courts have been mired in partisan squabbling. But the rancor between Democrats and Republicans hit a new level this week.
Democrats spent the week filibustering the nomination of Miguel Estrada, a conservative lawyer in Washington, D.C., who would be the first Hispanic on a U.S. appeals court here that often has been a steppingstone to the Supreme Court.
It apparently is the first time a lower-court nominee has been subject to such run-on debate that a vote could not be taken on his nomination. The move could foreshadow even more trouble for future appeals court nominees, and it could set the stage for a showdown over a possible Supreme Court nomination by President Bush this year.
Hour after hour, deep into the night, Democratic senators stood at their individual wooden desks in the blue-carpeted chamber to criticize Estrada and fill the time with remarks on everything from a potential war with Iraq to old-fashioned courtship. The latter came from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who recalled how in 1934 he wooed the girl who would become his wife with chewing gum and candy.
Debate was measured, hardly the fiery rhetoric captured in movies. And after the first week of the maneuver, it was difficult to know where it was headed. Such debate can be stopped only by a vote of a ''supermajority,'' or 60 of the 100 senators. (The Senate consists of 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent.)
Democrats have held together, but if the Estrada debate interferes with business related to national security and the economy, there may no longer be the 41 votes needed to keep a filibuster alive.
''We will not relent on the matter,'' Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said Thursday.
Democrats believe Estrada, 41, would tilt the ideologically divided appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit to the right and lead to rulings that impinge on civil liberties. Their immediate complaint is that Estrada evaded questions about his views during a Senate hearing and that the Justice Department has refused to turn over files of his work as an assistant to the U.S. solicitor general from 1992 to 1997.
''No nominee should be rewarded with a lifetime appointment . . . for stonewalling the Senate,'' said Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vt., ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In a letter Wednesday to Daschle and Leahy, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales again refused to turn over internal Justice Department files. He rejected Democrats' claims that similar information about past nominees had been released. He said that in such cases, ''the committee made a targeted request for specific information,'' rather than a general request for documents.
Gonzales highlighted Estrada's legal credentials, which include a Harvard law degree and a Supreme Court clerkship. Estrada's ''qualifications are all the more extraordinary given (that) . . . he came to this country at age 17 from Honduras speaking little English,'' Gonzales said.
The lower appeals courts are the last step for most of the legal disputes nationwide. But the law of the land is set by the Supreme Court. Any nomination to that bench is likely to generate an even hotter battle.
The advanced ages and tenure of some of the justices make a retirement likely in the near future. One possible retiree in upcoming months is Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 78, who has been on the court for more than three decades. |
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Andrew1999
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quote:
Originally posted by DanS
I wonder how many nominees Bush can get through under the radar while the Dems are blocking Estrada... |
Err, none. They're doing a real filibuster this time and completely blocking up the Senate rather than just threatening one to get a bill dropped.
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13-02-2003 02:35
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