Federal Judiciary

The Senate's Man in the White House?

By AndrewHyman

That's the way a McCain presidency might turn out. He'll seek nominees like Scalia and Roberts and Alito, but if that doesn't succeed, then it's anyone's guess:

[B]efore the nominations are formally introduced, the way they used to do it, they would kind of run the traps of the? senators, particularly those on the committee and say, "Are these acceptable or unacceptable?" and if they were unacceptable they wouldn?t send them over and if they were acceptable, then they would move forward.

This quote from a 2005 interview turned up today at The Corner. Apparently, McCain will not nominate the person he believes would do the best job on the Court, and would instead seek a consensus nominee who satisfies himself and sixty U.S. senators. That's preferable to Clinton/Obama, I suppose, but really not the best way to address vacancies.

Meanwhile, Senator Specter is urging more hearings rather than a continuation of the "Hatfields and McCoys". Good for him.

And Greg Stohr of Bloomberg news is reporting that Justice Alito has stopped short of "voting to overturn precedents that Thomas and Scalia decry, including the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision." Actually, all nine of the justices have been stopping short of such a vote, seeing as how that question has not been presented to them.

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Full post as published by ConfirmThem on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).