Today, U.S. Senator John McCain announced his Justice Advisory Committee to the Campaign. The Chairs of the Justice Advisory Committee are Theodore B. Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States and United States Senator Sam Brownback, R - Kansas. For a complete list of Committee Members click on the link above.

Congratulations to RNLA Members Ted Olson (Justice Advisory Committee Co-Chair), Charles Cooper, Arthur B. Culvahouse, Eileen O'Connor, Kristi Remington (also RNLA Judicial Affairs Committee Vice-Chair), and Professor Ronald Rotunda for being named to the distinguished Justice Advisory Committee.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 3:23 PM 0 comments links to this post

There is no way you can look at that agreement as a Democratic victory. Two days after the Deal was announced, Owen was confirmed by the Senate. Two weeks later, Brown was confirmed, and the next day the Senate confirmed Pryor. These confirmations were exactly what President Bush and the Republicans had tried to accomplish for five long years and the Democrats had blocked.

The confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Sam Alito --two exceptionally capable and conservative jurists-- were made relatively easy because of the "Gang of Fourteen Agreement."

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 3:03 PM 0 comments links to this post

For Both Senators Clinton And Obama, Not Even Chief Justice John Roberts Was Good Enough. When Judge Roberts was nominated, Senator Obama especially went right along with the partisan crowd, and was among just 22 senators to vote against this highly qualified nominee. According to Senator Obama's standards, a nominee who was brilliant, fair-minded, learned in the law, and who today is respected by all as the Chief Justice of the United States did not measure up. Neither did Justice Samuel Alito.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 3:01 PM 0 comments links to this post

I was encouraged by the Majority Leader's commitment to confirming three more circuit court nominees by Memorial Day. That will bring the total for the 110th Congress to 10, and it is a good step toward reaching the goal that we outlined at the beginning of this Congress of reaching the historical average. Because of the Majority Leader’s good faith commitment, I'm confident that we’ll have these three additional nominees confirmed by Memorial Day.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 11:13 PM 0 comments links to this post

The Washington Post today blasted Senate Democrats obstruction on the confirmation of Judges (Be sure to click on the link for the full Editorial):

IT IS TIME to stop playing games with judicial nominees. As senators cross swords and point fingers, seats remain empty, sitting judges get swamped, and cases drag on. Those who pay the highest price are the plaintiffs, defendants, crime victims and businesses relying on the courts to resolve disputes and dispense justice.

In the past two years, the Senate has confirmed seven nominees to the Court of Appeals; 16 such nominees were confirmed during President Bill Clinton's final two years in office. It appears unlikely that Democratic senators will match that number, but they should at least give every current nominee an up-or-down vote and expeditiously process the nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, where five of the court's 15 seats are vacant. Many in the current batch of national nominees no doubt warrant confirmation; we single out two particularly worthy ones.

Peter D. Keisler was nominated in 2006 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; his confirmation hearing was in August of that year. . . .

Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney in Maryland, is unquestionably well qualified.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 11:01 PM 0 comments links to this post

Similarly, under the previous three Presidents, the Senate confirmed an average of 17 appeals court nominees during their final two years in office. So far in the 110th Congress, we have confirmed only six appeals court nominees for President Bush. Just to meet the historical average, we will have to confirm 44 district court and 11 appeals court nominees in the next several months. Hatch said, "If anyone believes that will happen, I have some ocean-front property in the Utah desert I would like to sell them."

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 9:06 AM 0 comments links to this post

For the record, I have voted against only five of the more than 1,500 nominees to life-tenured judicial positions that the full Senate has considered since I was first elected. Some Democratic senators, including those with far less seniority, have voted against more than three times as many nominees of the current president alone. I have strongly opposed all filibusters against judicial nominees, both Democratic and Republican. I have not taken a partisan approach to judicial confirmations.

But it does not take a partisan standard to see that that neither the Judiciary Committee nor the full Senate is doing its judicial-confirmation duty. At both stages in the confirmation process, the Judiciary Committee and the Senate floor, Democrats are failing to meet both historical and their own standards.

Democratic leaders are fond of saying that they will not treat President Bush's nominees as the Republicans treated President Clinton’s nominees. Indeed, they are not. In the last ten months, for example, the Judiciary Committee has held a hearing on just three appeals-court nominees. During the same period under President Clinton, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on 11 nominees.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 9:01 AM 0 comments links to this post

Among Republican Leader McConnell's remarks on the Senate Floor yesterday as to what the Senate Priorities should be for the next eight weeks was the following comment on Judges: "It's time our friends on the other side stop blaming others for their own failures to act on judicial nominations. If they don’t, Republicans will be forced to consider other options."

Amen.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 2:49 PM 0 comments links to this post

For Obama, if elected, would certainly aim to fill the Supreme Court--and the lower federal courts--with liberal judicial activists.

Although Obama has served in the Senate for barely three years, he has already established a record on judicial nominations and constitutional law that comports with his 2007 ranking by the National Journal as the most liberal of all 100 senators. Obama voted against the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, and he even joined in the effort to filibuster the Alito nomination. In explaining his vote against Roberts, Obama opined that deciding the "truly difficult" cases requires resort to "one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy." In short, "the critical ingredient is supplied by what is in the judge's heart." No clearer prescription for lawless judicial activism is possible.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 4:16 PM 0 comments links to this post

With just 10 months left in his term, President George W. Bush is on track to leave office with fewer of his picks on the federal bench than his fellow two-term presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. . . .

By comparison, Clinton and Reagan, both of whom faced similar congressional opposition in the twilight of their administrations, each left office with more than 370 of their candidates confirmed, according to Senate statistics. And Bush is running only marginally ahead of Jimmy Carter, who left office after a single term with 262 nominees confirmed.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 3:52 PM 0 comments links to this post

Quin Hilyer sums up the raw partisan power play of Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to oppose Peter Keisler for judge on the DC Circuit:

A moderate conservative, his credentials for a judgeship at the same D.C. Court of Appeals are so strong that even the left-leaning editorial boards of The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have strongly supported his nomination. The American Bar Association review committee, hardly a rubber stamp for conservatives, gave Keisler its highest rating. Unanimously

Yet Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont refuses — without explanation — to allow the panel to vote on Keisler's nomination. His nomination has been pending an astonishing 623 days — more than 10 times as long as Leahy once said was a reasonable expectation — in a form of perpetual limbo. Leahy and his fellow Democrats are blocking Keisler with raw political power, just because they can, as a way to thumb their noses at President Bush.

Yet Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont refuses — without explanation — to allow the panel to vote on Keisler’s nomination. His nomination has been pending an astonishing 623 days — more than 10 times as long as Leahy once said was a reasonable expectation — in a form of perpetual limbo.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 8:40 AM 0 comments links to this post

Twenty-five years ago this week, President Ronald Reagan came to Orlando and delivered one of the most influential foreign-policy addresses ever given on American soil. To the text of an otherwise conventional speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan added the paragraph that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War, the nuclear arms race, and Soviet totalitarianism:

"I urge you to beware the temptation of pride," warned Reagan, "the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an Evil Empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil," he said.

Reagan's speech in Orlando remains as inspiring and timely today as it was when he delivered it, a timeless memorial to all those who stand in defiance of evil and defense of the defenseless. . . .

Yet no suitable memorial exists to date in Orlando to commemorate the Evil Empire speech.

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 2:03 PM 0 comments links to this post

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is ratcheting up the pressure on Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the panel's chairman, to confirm President Bush's judicial nominees.

Specter sent a lengthy letter to Leahy on Friday urging him to schedule "prompt action on nominees," arguing that "President Bush is even farther behind President Clinton in total confirmations when contrasting their entire terms."

# posted by Michael Thielen @ 8:33 AM 0 comments links to this post