The Judge Report: Smith Boys Sprung, Kavanaugh Stuck! 05/04/06
By Dave II Posted in User Blogs — Comments (20) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
From Diaries...Krempasky
Big day today. The Senate Judiciary Committee moved several judges out of Committee, and two District judges were confirmed. (How Appealing has a link where you can watch the Meeting here.) Good news first:
Two District Court nominees, Brian Cogan and Thomas Golden were both confirmed today with no "nay" votes. Both were nominated on January 25th, so they were moved through pretty quickly.
More good news: the Smith Boys, 9th Circuit nominees Randy Smith and Milan Smith were moved out of Committee today. Milan is being fast-tracked, and was moved out unanimously. Randy was voted out on party lines, 10-8 (again demonstrating that elections matter). Milan Smith will almost definitely be confirmed before the end of next week (hell, it might even happen tomorrow!), and Randy Smith might as well. Nobody seems to know at this point, but there doesn't seem to be deep-rooted opposition to him outside of the Cali senators. I think that means no filibuster, but low confirmation support in the vote. The Smith Boys will be welcome additions to the most Democratic court in the nation. There are four vacancies on that Court, but it looks like Bush will get three nominees confirmed this month, and that ain't nothing to sneeze at.
Also, four new District Court nominees, all for New Jersey, were moved out as well. They are: Peter Sheridan, Noel Hillman, Susan Wiggenton, and Renee Bumb. New Jersey hasn't had any new District judges in a while because of conflicts between the New Jersey Senators and the White House, but they've recently struck a deal (which I think included the nomination of Susan Wiggenton). Only Michigan has as many District vacancies as New Jersey, so it's good that some new judges are on their way. The New Jersey Four should all be confirmed by the end of next week.
Now the bad news: As Confirm Them reports, Brett Kavanaugh is being delayed a week. There will be a hearing on Tuesday so the Democrats can try and embarrass the Bush administration, and then he'll be moved out on Thursday. A one week delay in all. He'll almost certainly be confirmed at the very end of May and not sooner. Kavanaugh will make a hell of a judge, and he'll be a great influence on the D.C. Circuit, where the current Repub-Dem split is 6-3.
The Senate is starting to go through nominees like taxpayers' dollars, so the Judge Report will be constantly updating this month to let RedState readers know how the fight to win back the federal judiciary is progressing!
Here's the link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060504-13.html
Also, the White House nominated a new judge to the California District Court: Valerie Baker.
Valerie L. Baker is apparently a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court.
I'm reasonably certain that Jerome Holmes is the first African American nominated to the Tenth Circuit, and if confirmed, will be that court's first African American judge.
The Judge Report got linked to at How Appealing, one of the Founding Fathers of legal blogs.
Just don't have much to add. Keep up the good work. This is very important to the GOP and ME.
We've been tracking you like a mouse in the snow. Keep up the good work.
Keep reading because I'll keep posting. I think there's a decent chance for some confirmations tomorrow. Perhaps Senator Smith would like to make his brother a federal judge before leaving for the weekend?
Ending judicial tyranny is one of my favorite issues.
And it looks like victory is in sight.
With a few more 9th Circuit seats, we can expect to see less communist/modernist legislation coming from the bench.
And we can only pray that another seat will open up on the U.S. Supreme Court. A Democratic filibuster would sink the dems politically and they know it.
That's why they couldn't pull the trigger on Alito.
Thanks, Dave, for all the great updates!
It seems like our GOP Senators have finally woken up to the possibility that they may be fewer next year, and they should take maximum advantage of their 55-45 majority while they still have it to confirm lots of judicial nominees.
This may help them preserve their majority, if Dem votes against qualified judges can be used agasint them.
Byron York http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDgwN2Q1OGI1MDY1MWU3Y2Q5Mjg3YzA4MGFiY2
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wrote that Bush has had 235 confirmations for an 87% confirmation rate. Other sources I'd read, but can't find now, indicated a much lower rate. Is there a definitive source somewhere? How does that rate and just absolute number compare to past presidents?
thanks.
The more the public sees of Schumer, Biden & the Swimmer, the better.
Thank you Carl Lenin and Debbie Stabmenow.
The Supreme Court will be closing out its term next month. I am praying that we will have a resignation from Stevens or Ginsberg. Going into the midterm election a Supreme Court nomination fight would greatly help Republicans. Unlike most people I think we are going to do well in this midterm- I think, if everything works out, we can pick up a Senate seat or 2 and basically keep House losses to a handfull. Last year, one of the tea leaves that was being looked at was that O'Connor had not hired her full compliment of clerks and that she was making plans to move out of DC. Is anyone checking out these things regarding the older more liberal Justices?
Quin Hilyer over at American Spectator keeps up with this, and he's been saying there are rumors, but there always are. Nothing definite yet, and nothing about clerks yet. Even if Stevens has hired the full complement of them, that wouldn't mean anything anyway. Justices do that and then leave all the time. Typically, those clerks are picked up by the new Justice.
I can believe that of the nominations presented 87% have been confirmed, but that there are a lot of openings for which a nomination has not been made.
Tonight, the White House nominated Jerome Holmes to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The White House originally nominated him to the Oklahoma District Court in February, but they've decided instead to put him on the Tenth. Jim Payne was nominated to this seat in the fall, but he subsequently withdrew when an article by Salon documented cases where he improperly ruled when he had a financial interest in the matter.
Holmes will be replacing Stephanie Seymour, a Carter appointee, so his confirmation will tilt the court a bit. I'm sure Dems will fight him, and they'll point out that his rating from the ABA is only Qualified(sm)/Not Qualified(min).
Tomorrow's Judge Report will contain all this info. White House nominations are usually made in the evening.