Federal Judiciary

6th Cir. Obstruction and the MI Primary

By Curt Levey

Michigan is home to both the next presidential primary and the decade?s most outrageous obstruction of judicial nominees. Back in 2001, Sens. Levin and Stabenow started blocking Michigan nominees to the Sixth Circuit and they?ve persisted to this day. As a result, Steve Murphy and Ray Kethledge have gone more than a year and a half without so much as a hearing in the Judiciary Committee, despite the fact that the seats to which they are nominated are judicial emergencies.

The confluence of the primary and obstruction campaign by Michigan?s senators provides an opportunity for journalists to ask both the presidential contenders and Levin and Stabenow about the proper role of senators in the confirmation process. No doubt Levin and Stabenow will once again cite, as justification, the failure of two second-term Clinton appointees to the Sixth Circuit—one of whom is married to Levin's cousin—to get hearings. Besides being petty, that justification rings hollow, given that Levin and Stabenow have been offered ?generous? compromises that would put the two Clinton nominees on the federal bench. But the senators ?can't take yes for an answer,? to quote Detroit News editorials (9/13/04 & 11/25/01).

It?s a shame that Sen. Levin has forgotten his own words from the Clinton era:

?It is unconscionable to keep [judicial nominees] waiting. At a minimum, give people a hearing and vote them up or down. If members want to vote no, that is their choice. But not to give them a hearing is just unfair.? (Detroit News 10/17/99)

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Full post as published by ConfirmThem on January 11, 2008 (boomark / email).