Last week I was jealous that I couldn’t hear Fred Thompson’s speech to the National Council for Policy in Virginia. Thompson has released the speech since then, and it’s available here. It’s a very simple speech on a simple theme — focusing on Roberts and Libby as they two intersect in the fight for the rule of law. In my favorite quote Thompson says:
We have always held our federal judiciary in high esteem, even at a time when most of our institutions are under assault. However, if judges continue to act like politicians they will get the respect currently given to politicians. It is already rapidly headed in that direction. The antidote for this, of course, is good judges.
Tom Goldstein from ScotusBlog has some intriguing analysis on the state of the court, especially as we head into the 2008 election. After looking back at the last four presidents who each were able to choose two justices, he writes:
“The next President similarly will have two appointments immediately (replacing Stevens and Souter), and there also is a very substantial prospect that a Democrat would quickly be in a position to appoint a third (replacing Ginsburg). In fact, if a Democrat wins, there will be something of a race for the exits.”
Goldstein further points out that if a Democrat president wins in 2008, and the three replacements (for Souter, Stevens and Ginsberg) will likely be young and able to sit on the court for several decades.
Considering these prospects, it is crucial that we elect a conservative who will not back down from appointing strict constructionist judges in the mold of Justices Thomas and Scalia to the bench. We can’t let Bush’s legacy of Roberts and Alito go to waste.
Confirm Them has linked to a very interesting piece about Scalia, and his influence on legal theory. Check it out here.
Just came back from How We Pick Our Judges: A View from the Inside here at the Cornell Law School. Unfortunately, my mp3 player’s battery gave out right through the panel discussion, so I lost five minutes of Eleanor Acheson.
This is the first time Leonard Leo has given an account of last year’s nominations, so his account is full of interesting tidbits.
In response to the last question on the role of blogs and Confirm Them, Leo also praised the blogosophere, saying that it was often only there that intelligent discussion on constitutional issues took place.
Confirm Them is reporting that Judge Saad has withdrawn his name from consideration for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. By doing so he has joined the ranks of other excellent judges such as Estrada and Bork who have been kept off the bench by spineless Republicans and shameless Democrats. Detroit News writes:
Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, both Michigan Democrats, had blocked Saad’s confirmation, angry that a Republican-controlled Senate failed to confirm Michigan judicial nominees during the Clinton Administration. Last year, Senate Democrats agreed to step aside and allow confirmation of several judicial nominees, but Saad wasn’t one of them.Saad, 56, was nominated to the federal appeals court in 2001 and 2005. He received the highest marks in the American Bar Association’s rating system for judicial nominees.
Marshall over at Confirm Them says:
His withdrawal tonight ends a shameful saga of character assasination perpetrated by obstructionist Democrats. But perhaps the most shameful part of the tale is that complicit Republicans allowed it to succeed. When Henry Saad was under attack � when Minority Leader Harry Reid violated Senate rules by referencing confidential information about Judge Saad on the floor of the Senate � too many Republicans sat by and let Reid and his Senate cronies get away with it.
So tonight, I hope every Republican Senator feels ashamed.
My sentiments exactly, except I’m concerned the ’shameful saga of character assasination’ will continue, only against other well qualified nominees.
Paul Weyrich deals with the recent rumour that there might be another Supreme Court vacancy this summer. He writes:
. . .As one long-time Senate staffer said to me, “If you think what the outside groups did in the Alito nomination was tough, it was like a kindergarten class compared to what is next.”
Conservatives likewise would require unprecedented resources to hold Republican Senators in line and to assure the votes were Frist to change the rules in the middle of the session.
If the rumor turns out to be true, then hope and pray the vacancy comes at the end of June. The President and his party might be good for one more nomination and confirmation. If, as many now believe, the Democrats take over the Senate this November, or even if Republicans are reduced to a 51-49 majority, the chance of getting one more good, solid nominee such as the two the President already has given us almost certainly is down the drain.
(Courtesy of ConfirmThem.)
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