Judicial Selection Monitoring Project Coalition for Judicial Restraint Weekly Update for 5/11/01 Volume IV, Number 7 Published by the Center for Law & Democracy at the Free Congress Foundation. Thomas L. Jipping, M.A., J.D., Director John A. Nowacki, Esq., Deputy Director Jason Koehne, Coalition Coordinator (e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ) Phone: 202-546-3000 Fax: 202-543-5605 http://www.freecongress.org/ <http://www.freecongress.org/> ************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: * Bush Nominates Eleven For Courts of Appeals Vacancies. * JSMP Launches New Website. * Senator Edwards Vows To Block Boyle Nomination. * Commentary: Dems Get Judicial Selections Right? ************************************************** Bush Nominates Eleven For Courts of Appeals Vacancies On Wednesday, President Bush sent his first eleven judicial nominations to the Senate. All of the nominations were for vacancies on the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Miguel Estrada is nominated to the District of Columbia Circuit (a court with 3 of 12 seats vacant). Estrada is a partner at Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher in D.C. He served as Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General from 1992-1997, as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1990-1992, and as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy during the 1988-1989 term. John Roberts is also nominated to the D.C. Circuit. He is a partner and the head of appellate practice at Hogan & Hartson in D.C. He was the Principal Deputy Solicitor General from 1989-1993, Associate Counsel to President Reagan (1982-1986), and law clerk to then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist (1980-1981). Roberts has argued 33 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and a Legal Times profile published last October described him as being "viewed by many as the best Supreme Court advocate in private law firm practice." Barrington Parker is nominated to the Second Circuit (a court with 1 of the 13 seats vacant). He was in private law practice from 1970-1994, when he was appointed to be a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York by President Clinton. Terrence Boyle is nominated to the Fourth Circuit (a court with 5 of 15 seats vacant). He is currently Chief U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He was appointed to that court by President Reagan in 1984. Boyle was in private practice from 1974-1984. He has sat by designation on the Fourth Circuit, authoring more than 20 opinions in that capacity. Boyle is a former aide to Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). He was nominated to the Fourth Circuit in 1991 by the first President Bush, but his nomination was one of several Senate Democrats blocked from moving forward. Roger Gregory is nominated to the Fourth Circuit. He was recess appointed to that court by President Clinton in December, after being nominated late last summer. His nomination was controversial at the time, in part because he was a Virginian nominated to a North Carolina seat on the court. Gregory was in private practice from 1978 until his recess appointment. His nomination marks the first time a President has re-nominated a person whose nomination was originally submitted by a President of the opposite party. Dennis Shedd is also nominated to the Fourth Circuit. Shedd was appointed to be a U.S. District Judge for the District of South Carolina by the first President Bush in 1990. Like Boyle, he has sat by designation on the Fourth Circuit. Shedd was in private practice from 1976-1978, and from 1988-1991. Edith Clement is nominated to the Fifth Circuit, where 3 of the 17 seats are vacant. She was in private practice from 1975 until 1991, when the first President Bush appointed her to be a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Priscilla Owen is also nominated to the Fifth Circuit. She was elected to the Supreme Court of Texas in 1994 and re-elected last year. Owen was in private practice from 1978-1994. Deborah Cook is nominated to the Sixth Circuit, where 6 of the 16 seats are vacant. Like Owen, Cook was elected to the Supreme Court of her state--Ohio--in 1994 and re-elected in 2000. She served as a judge on the Ohio Court of Appeals from 1991-1994, and was in private practice from 1976-1991. Jeffrey Sutton is also nominated to the Sixth Circuit. He is a partner at the firm of Jones Day Reavis & Pogue. Sutton served as the Solicitor of the State of Ohio from 1995-1998. He has argued 9 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and 12 before the Ohio Supreme Court. Michael McConnell is nominated to the Tenth Circuit. McConnell is a professor at the University of Utah College of Law. He taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1985-1996, was an Assistant to the Solicitor General from 1983-1985, and is the author of more than 50 law journal articles. ************************************************** JSMP Launches New Website The Judicial Selection Monitoring Project unveiled a new website, JudicialSelection.org, on Thursday. The site, which is obviously located at www.judicialselection.org <http://www.judicialselection.org> , houses a searchable database of quotations from Democrats and their leftist allies on the need to fill federal judicial vacancies, the need to avoid ideological litmus tests when confirming judges, and a host of other topics. Many of these statements, which were made when vacancies were well below the 100 that exist today, stand in sharp contrast to the statements about the need to obstruct confirmations for political reasons that those same people have been making of late. The site also contains some of the information about the Bush nominees highlighted above, information about President Bush's standard for judicial appointments, the left-wing strategy to obstruct confirmations, op-eds, press releases, commentaries, useful Internet links, and contact information for both of your Senators. The JSMP's main site, at www.freecongress.org <http://www.freecongress.org> , will continue to operate alongside JudicialSelection.org. ************************************************** Senator Edwards Vows To Block Boyle Nomination North Carolina Democrat John Edwards has said he will block Judge Terrence Boyle's nomination to the Fourth Circuit. Edwards, reportedly considering a challenge to President Bush in 2004, announced he will not support Boyle until "greater balance" is provided to the Fourth Circuit. "Greater balance" in all likelihood means the re-nomination of activist state judge James Wynn, a Clinton nominee. This is a one hundred eighty-degree reversal for Edwards, who condemned political litmus tests in a Senate speech on October 3rd of last year: "We should be nominating judges. Whether it is a Democratic or a Republican administration, it shouldn't make any difference in nominating well-qualified judges. This body should act on the qualification of those men and women to serve on the court, not based on the Republican or Democratic composition of the court. It is just that simple. It should be totally nonpartisan." Edwards has also toned down his rhetoric about the need for a North Carolinian on the Fourth Circuit. In August 1999, he said it was "critically important that North Carolina gain another judge on the Fourth Circuit." ************************************************** Commentary: Dems Get Judicial Selections Right? By Thomas L. Jipping President Bush has sent the Senate 11 nominees for positions on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Under the standards Democrats urged for Clinton nominees, they should be quickly and unanimously confirmed. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, 31 of the current 100 judicial vacancies are on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Eight of the 11 positions Mr. Bush seeks to fill with these first nominees have been open so long they are dubbed "judicial emergencies." Back on October 21, 1998, when there were just 69 total vacancies, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., praised President Clinton for sending "qualified nominees for [some] of the current judicial emergency positions" and urged his colleagues quickly to approve them. President Bush has done the same thing, and Sen. Leahy should similarly urge his colleagues quickly to approve them. Seven of the 11 nominees are currently sitting judges, five on the U.S. District Court and two on state supreme courts, with a total of nearly 60 years of judicial experience. Four have argued a total of nearly 70 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Four have served as law clerks to U.S. Supreme Court Justices as ideologically diverse as William Brennan and Antonin Scalia. An October 2000 profile in Legal Times said that nominee John Roberts "is viewed by many as the best Supreme Court advocate in private law firm practice." Nominee Deborah Cook, last year re-elected to the Ohio Supreme Court, has a decade of judicial experience and spent 15 years in private practice. Last October, the Cincinnati Post called her "a clear-headed, intellectually rigorous jurist" and the Columbus Dispatch said that she "uniquely combines keen intellect, careful legal scholarship, and consistency in her opinions." Nominee Terrence Boyle, currently Chief U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, has 17 years of judicial and 10 years of private practice experience. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has appointed him to important committees of the Judicial Conference. Nominee Priscilla Owen, last year re-elected to the Texas Supreme Court, had 16 years of private law practice before joining the court in 1994. And nominee Michael McConnell has taught in prestigious law schools for more than 15 years, authored more than 50 law journal articles, and enjoys the support of even leading liberal legal scholars. What should happen next? It's fair to look at how senators have in the past said the Senate should evaluate judicial nominees. It's fair to expect that senators will keep their word and not simply turn on a partisan dime and treat these nominees differently because they come from President Bush. Sen. Leahy, lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had a recommendation last year that seems reasonable. On July 21, 2000, he noted in a Senate floor speech that "Governor Bush of Texas recently also proposed that presidential nominations be acted upon by the Senate within 60 days." He then said, "If I could make a recommendation, I would join an unusual ally in that, Governor George W. Bush of Texas. Presidential nominations should be acted upon by the Senate within 60 days. ... Governor Bush is right." If this is a reasonable Democratic proposal for the timetable, what standards should senators use? In April 1994, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., then-Judiciary Committee Chairman, suggested these criteria in a Senate floor speech: "First, that the nominee has the capacity, competence, and temperament to be on the court of appeals or a trial court. Second, is the nominee of good character and free of conflict of interest? Third, would the nominee faithfully apply the Constitution and the precedents of the Supreme Court?" Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, similarly explained on Oct. 3, 2000, that the main question is "whether or not they were qualified -- not whether they were ideologically opposed to me or how I feel or what I believe." Finally, should partisan politics interfere with judicial selection? Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., offered the answer last October: "Whether it is a Democratic or a Republican administration, it shouldn't make any difference in nominating well-qualified judges. This body should act on the qualification of those men and women to serve on the court, not based upon the Republican or Democratic composition of the court. It is just that simple. This should be totally nonpartisan." So Senate Democrats have been clear about how they believe judicial nominees should be handled. The Senate, they say, should act quickly to consider nominees, especially those to "judicial emergency" positions, and should focus on qualifications, temperament, and character rather than ideology or partisan considerations. Sounds like a good plan. Thomas L. Jipping is Vice-President for Legal Policy at the Free Congress Foundation. This column was originally published on WorldNetDaily.com, where his column appears on Thursdays. **************************************************
