Federal Judiciary

Santorum, Harrison, Obama and Clinton on Judicial Nominees

By AndrewHyman

Rick Santorum wrote this today:

Many conservatives have given McCain poor marks for his involvement in the Gang of 14. I was in leadership pushing hard for a showdown with the Democrats on using the "Constitutional Option" to end their filibuster of judicial nominations. The Gang of 14 broke the impasse, and it probably was for the best. I was the one counting votes on that issue, and I was much less certain of success than others. In the end, the Gang deal resulted in numerous confirmations of qualified conservative jurists.

On judges, McCain has repeatedly made clear that he will, as his Web site states, "only nominate judges who understand that their role is to faithfully apply the law as written, not impose their opinions through judicial fiat." Sounds good to me.

Also, Marion Edwyn Harrison is skeptical about SCOTUS vacancies this year, so the next president will probably have a lot of nominating to do.

In 2005, while filibustering the Alito nomination, Sen. Barack Obama explained what kind of judges he would appoint; Obama gave Democrats a "guarantee that the judges who are appointed to the Supreme Court are judges that reflect our values." In other words, judges as political party hacks. What ever happened to judges reflecting what's in the Constitution and laws that have been duly enacted by will of the people?

And Senator Clinton has lamented constitutional limits on federal power: "The next time I consider school safety legislation, should I wonder whether school safety is 'truly national' or 'truly local'?" Of course not Senator, if you're elected then you get to tell states and localities to do whatever you say; you can implement whatever values you want. Just ask Sen. Obama.

Did you know that Clinton joined Obama in filibustering Alito?

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Full post as published by ConfirmThem on April 21, 2008 (boomark / email).