Federal Judiciary

Two Circuit Court Nominees Confirmed Including One Nominated by Clinton

By AndrewHyman

Congratulations to Raymond Kethledge who was confirmed to the Sixth Circuit today. Helene White was also confirmed today, and perhaps President Bush will now appoint her to the Sixth Circuit. Bush's decision to nominate her was an extremely generous act of bipartisanship, on a par with President Bush's nomination of Roger Gregory to the Fourth Circuit. I'm not certain that it's proper for Bush to nominate judges whose judicial philosophy disagrees with his own, but I am fairly certain that Bush's magnanimity will not diminish the obstruction in the Senate.

Now that the Senate has confirmed this Clinton nominee, it's probably back to obstruction mode for non-Clinton nominees Glen Conrad, Robert Conrad, Peter Keisler, Steve Matthews, Gene Pratter, Rod Rosenstein, William Smith, and Shalom David Stone. Timely hearings and prompt votes for judicial nominees are not likely any time soon, thanks to Reid, Leahy, Obama, and company.

Helene White was the wife of Senator Carl Levin's cousin. In 1996, White was considering an independent bid for the Michigan Supreme Court, at the expense of the Democratic candidate for state supreme court. Michigan Democrats therefore persuaded Bill Clinton to nominate White to the Sixth Circuit. Clinton did so, even though then-Sen. Spencer Abraham had already traded his help with three Michigan judicial nominees to the federal courts, in exchange for Clinton holding off on further nominations from Michigan. Sen. Abraham felt double-crossed by Clinton's nomination of White, and Abraham therefore placed a hold on her nomination. Now she's very likely to join the Sixth Circuit.

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Full post as published by ConfirmThem on June 24, 2008 (boomark / email).