Federal Judiciary

The 2008 Presidential Election and the Future of the Supreme Court

Posted on September 04, 2008
MSNBC has this report, and quotes yours truly. You can read my quotes below the fold. read more

Film on SCOTUS Confirmation Battles

Posted on August 29, 2008
If you?ll be in Minneapolis next Tuesday, join me for a screening of the soon-to-be-released feature documentary about the Supreme Court confirmations battles of 2005-06. The screening of ?Advise & Dissent,? by director David Van Taylor (?With God on Our Side? and ?A Perfect Candidate?), will be followed by a panel discussion of legal experts, including yours truly...

Palin & Judges

Posted on August 29, 2008
For us judge junkies, an obvious question is where Sarah Palin stands on the issue of judicial appointments. Sure, she?s a social conservative, but that only hints at the answer to the question. I?m interested to hear people?s thoughts on the question...

Garnett on Kmiec

Posted on August 28, 2008
Professor Rick Garnett has today's must-read post. Here's a taste: What is at stake in the abortion debate ? and, as someone who has known and admired Doug Kmiec for years, I am sorry that he seems to be forgetting this ? is not only reducing the number of abortions and helping women considering abortion to find their way to a different choice (though, of course, such reductions and help are important, and one wishes that Democrats for Life had more influence); it as about repairing the damage done to our political community, and to our constitutional order, by a decision that declared that the Constitution itself disables citizens from protecting in law the most vulnerable among us...

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Open Thread

Posted on August 23, 2008
Back in February 2006, I wrote a Confirmthem post titled "Obama and Biden Denounce Themselves". The subject of that post was their joint admission that filibustering judicial nominations was unwise but they'd keep on doing it anyway. The more things change, the more they remain the same...

McCain on Justices

Posted on August 18, 2008
Teagan Goddard asks a very uncomfortable question about John McCain: During his weekend interview with Rev. Rick Warren, Sen. John McCain said that if he were president he would have never nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter or John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court...

I Love the Wall Street Journal

Posted on August 14, 2008
See why.

ABA & O'Connor to the Rescue

Posted on August 12, 2008
Monday, the ABA's House of Delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for the use of "bipartisan commissions of lawyers and other leaders, reflecting the diversity of the profession and the community" to recommend nominees to the federal courts...

Sowell and Boitnott on Judicial Nominations

Posted on August 05, 2008
Here are some recent thoughts from Thomas Sowell: Highly qualified people, whose knowledge and judgment are much needed in high places, may turn down judicial nominations, for example, or decline other high-profile positions in government, if that means risking having outstanding reputations for integrity that they have built up over a lifetime be dragged through the mud in televised confirmation hearings conducted like Roman circuses...

Best Wishes to Bob Novak

Posted on August 04, 2008
As many of you probably know, Bob Novak retired from journalism this week. His medical condition is dire. I think it's very safe to say that everyone at confirmthem (including commenters, bloggers, the owners, the webmaster, and the janitor) all wish Mr...

Bush Capitulates

Posted on August 01, 2008
In my column at today's Examiner, I look at the strange nomination of Anthony Trenga to the nation's most important federal district court (most important because it handles so many national security cases). Does Bush have Stockholm Syndrome?

Pratter Out, Diamond In

Posted on July 24, 2008
Per a deal worked out by Sens. Specter and Casey and ratified by the White House, the nomination of Gene Pratter to the Third Circuit was withdrawn, and U.S. District Court Judge Paul Diamond was named in her place late today. The deal also includes the nomination today of four district court judges for Pennsylvania: C...

Reid on Confirming Judicial Nominees: "It's Not a Big Issue"

Posted on July 19, 2008
The cover story in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Bar Association features the lack of judges on the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (see image at right). Judicial nominees wait for years, while their home-state Senators beg for hearings, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says "it's not a big issue...

Bob Barr is Helping Barack Obama

Posted on July 18, 2008
Former Republican Bob Barr is the Libertarian nominee for President. He had a column yesterday in the Wall Street Journal titled "Judges Are No Reason to Vote for McCain". I wish I had time to list all of the fallacies in Barr's column. Let's start with this one: "Mr...

More by Me on Judges

Posted on July 18, 2008
Here's my latest at The Washington Examiner. Short version: Specter and company have a good plan for fairness on judicial nominations, and it is timely, considering that Robert Conrad of North Carolina has waited a whole year, exactly, for the courtesy of a hearing...

Interesting Poll Result

Posted on July 18, 2008
From a Quinnipiac poll: The Supreme Court has recently ruled that a mandatory death penalty for child rape is unconstitutional. Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of child rape? 55% favor, 38% oppose. I'm not sure which way I'd answer this question, but I certainly don't think it's a "cruel" punishment for the kind of thing that happened in Kennedy v...

Senate GOP Calls for Hearings on Nominees, Others Call for Diversity on SCOTUS

Posted on July 15, 2008
Senator Specter yesterday led a group of eight GOP Senators in a meeting about judicial nominations. Professor John McGinnis of Northwestern Law School participated. According to news reports: McGinnis said that by delaying or refusing to provide hearings for plausibly qualified federal court nominees, the Judiciary Committee is likely to harm the quality of the judiciary...

Judges as Campaign Issue

Posted on July 11, 2008
My latest at the Examiner, here.

No to O'Neill

Posted on July 09, 2008
Intellectual integrity requires that when we conservatives repeatedly say that what matters for a judicial nominee is qualifications and integrity, we should be willing to put our money where our mouths are by refusing to support nominees who don't pass the smell test...

Are You Friggin Kidding Me?

Posted on July 07, 2008
?[The appointment of Justice Kennedy to the Supreme Court] turned out to be successful beyond Reagan's wildest dreams. ? Kennedy was exactly what Reagan thought ? ?a true conservative.?? ? David Broder, Washington Post (7/6/08) Broder?s thesis is that putting Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court was successful beyond Reagan's wildest dreams because Kennedy ?has turned out to be its single most influential member...

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Posted on July 05, 2008
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McCain's Speech to Sheriffs And Obama's Misleading Response

Posted on July 01, 2008
John McCain made a speech today to the National Sheriff's Association. He criticized the justices who decided the recent child rape case, asserting that those five justices substituted: their judgment for that of the people of Louisiana, their legislators, their governor, the trial judge, the jury, the appellate judge, and the other four justices of the Supreme Court...

So, Will Anyone Retire?

Posted on June 30, 2008
Not to falsely raise anybody's hopes, but.... will any of the Justices retire now that the term is over? I still say there's a chance. Stevens or Souter could let the 4th of July holiday pass, and then: Whammo. Drop a media bomb. If so, you can probably say hello to Justice Consuelo Callahan...

George Will's Question for Clinging Conservatives

Posted on June 27, 2008
George Will wrote today: The more McCain talks -- about wicked "speculators," about how he reveres ANWR as much as the Grand Canyon, about adjusting the planet's thermostat, etc. -- the more conservatives cling to judicial nominees as a reason for supporting him...

My Take on Heller: Bush Got Slapped

Posted on June 27, 2008
Read it here. Short version: By refusing to remand the case to lower courts, as the Bush brief had requested, Scalia took power away from judges and left it where it belongs, in the text of the Constitution.

Scalia's Opinion, Roberts' Majority

Posted on June 26, 2008
Today's opinion in the Heller case is classic Scalia. Founded on a profound and in-depth historical analysis loaded with detail, Scalia's opinion defines originalism. For 54 pages of rhetorical flourish, he constructs an overwhelming argument and disposes in detail of the dissenters' "wrong headed" contentions...

Heller Decision, WaPo Editorial on Confirmations

Posted on June 26, 2008
Here's today's Second Amendment decision. Senator Obama's three model justices dissented. (UPDATE: and here's reaction from the presidential candidates). And today the Washington Post has an editorial on confirmations. According to the Post, counting all pending judicial and non-judicial nominations, "Altogether, 394 nominees have waited a combined 52,122 days for confirmation...

White House Issues Statement

Posted on June 25, 2008
Here's what President Bush said today following confirmation of Helene White and Raymond Kethledge: Since the beginning of the 110th Congress, the Senate has confirmed only 10 circuit court nominees. In the last two years of the past three Administrations, the Senate has confirmed an average of 17 circuit court judges...

Kennedy v. The Constitution

Posted on June 25, 2008
Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion today in Kennedy v. Louisiana, banning capital punishment for someone who rapes a child. It will be a happy day when Justice Kennedy is no longer able to assault the Constitution in this way. I concur with the dissenting opinion in this case (not that the opinion of a mere citizen matters)...

Where is the Friggin' White House??!!!????

Posted on June 25, 2008
From the very beginning of this administration's judge wars, the administration has been AWOL when it comes to actually fighting for its own nominees. Instead, it has consistently left the work up to the Senate, offering way too little support and sometimes even undermining Senate negotiators...

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