Yes or no vote is needed. Democrat senators block progress.
Moveon.org call Bush judicial nominees "radical" and "extreme."
http://upordownvote.com/index.htm
Judges Overview:
* Never before President George W. Bush's presidency has a judicial nominee with clear majority support been denied an up or down vote in the Senate by a filibuster.
* Overcoming a filibuster has never been the confirmation test for a judicial nominee.
* The Democrats have threatened to “shut down the Senate” rather than carry out their Constitutional obligation to provide an up or down vote on judicial nominees.
* Republicans support the continued use of the legislative filibuster. (Senator Frist's first vote in 1995 was to preserve the legislative filibuster.)
* Republicans are seeking to restore the advice and consent Constitutional obligations of the Senate for judicial nominees - not eliminate the filibuster.
* Prior to 1949, the rule on cloture votes did not apply to nominations.
Here are two of the terrible nominees.
Priscilla Owen Overview:
* The President has nominated Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a seat that has been designated a “judicial emergency” by the Judicial Conference of the United States.
* Owen has been a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court since 1994 and was endorsed for reelection by every major Texas newspaper.
* Owen previously practiced commercial litigation for seventeen years.
* Owen received her undergraduate degree from Baylor University and graduated third in her class from Baylor Law School in 1977.
* The American Bar Association unanimously rated Justice Owen “well qualified,” its highest possible rating. Justice Owen is the first nominee considered “well qualified” by the ABA to be denied a floor vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
* Owen has served as the liaison to the Texas Supreme Court's Mediation Task Force and to statewide committees on providing legal services to the poor and pro bono legal services.
* Owen was part of a committee that successfully encouraged the Texas Legislature to enact legislation that has resulted in millions of dollars per year in additional funds for providers of legal services to the poor.
* Owen organized a group known as Family Law 2000, which warns parents about the difficulties children face when parents go through a divorce and teaches parents how to address those difficulties and how to make the divorce process as painless as possible for children.
Bipartisan Support For Priscilla Owen:
* Owen has significant bipartisan support, including three former Democrat judges on the Texas Supreme Court and a bipartisan group of 15 past Presidents of the State Bar of Texas.
* Former Texas Secretary of State, former Attorney General and former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John L. Hill (D): “President Bush honored impeccable integrity, character, and scholarship when he nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit a leading voice for reform in the Texas judiciary: Priscilla Owen. … After years of closely observing Justice Owen's work, I can assert with confidence that her approach to judicial decision-making is restrained, that her opinions are fair and well reasoned, and that her integrity is beyond reproach. I echo the American Bar Association's unanimous conclusion that she is "well qualified" for the federal bench-the highest rating possible.” (John L. Hill, “Struck Gold,” National Review, 7/23/02)
* Raul Gonzalez, Former Democratic Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas: “I found her to be apolitical, extremely bright, diligent in her work, and of the highest integrity. I recommend her for confirmation without reservation.” (Letter to Sen. Leahy, 7/19/02)
Priscilla Owen's Record:
Myth: Owen's rulings on parental notification for abortion are out of the mainstream.
* Fact: Owen has ruled only on a Texas parental notification, not a parental consent statute. Owen was in the majority in 9 of the 12 cases and her decisions were based on her interpretation of the requirements of the ambiguous Texas statute in light of governing U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
* Fact: In each of her dissents, Owen strove to faithfully adhere to Supreme Court precedent, defer to the factual findings of the trial court, and respect the legislative intent of the law makers. Taken together, these cases reflect a restrained and careful jurist, not an activist.
* Fact: Justice Owen has not questioned Roe v. Wade in her decisions and has testified that as a lower-court judge, she would adhere to and strictly follow Roe v. Wade.
Myth: Owen's rulings in the parental notification cases show that she is an activist pro-life judge, including her decision to add words like “religion” to the statute.
* Fact: Texas parental notification statute is clearly constitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly and unanimously upheld such statutes.
* Fact: Owen emphasized that she was merely invoking language from Supreme Court precedent and expressly cautioned that, “[a] court cannot, of course, require a minor or adopt or adhere to any particular philosophy or any religious beliefs.”
Myth: Attorney General Gonzales said Justice Owen's interpretations of an abortion statute constituted “an unconscionable act of judicial activism.”
* Fact: Gonzales was referring to two other justices-not Justice Owen.
* Fact: Justice Gonzales supports Justice Owen's confirmation to the Fifth Circuit, and agrees with the ABA's unanimous view that she is “well qualified” for the federal bench.
* Fact: Even the Washington Post editorial board, a staunch defender of abortion rights, has found Justice Owen's interpretations “reasonable.”
Myth: Owen's colleagues criticized her for rewriting statutes.
* Fact: Under this standard, no judge would ever be confirmed because practically every judge has at one point or another been criticized for allegedly rewriting a statute.
Myth: Priscilla Owen is too closely linked to Enron.
* Fact: Priscilla Owen has actually been a leader in trying to reform the way judges are elected in Texas, having come out solidly against such elections.
* Fact: Like six other justices on the nine-member court, Justice Owen has received legitimate contributions from Enron employees and the Enron employee PAC. However, she only took $8,800 in Enron contributions out of a total of $1.2 million raised for her bid.
Myth: Justice Owen has favored corporations over consumers.
* Fact: Owen has joined or authored many opinions advancing the interests of consumers. She has supported the right of medical malpractice victims to recover from physicians who injured them, upheld the right of policyholders to recover from insurance companies, held that manufacturers had a legal duty to make a product child resistant and upheld a $5 million punitive damages verdict in a construction accident case.
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Janice Rogers Brown Overview:
* The President has nominated Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. One fourth of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently vacant.
* Brown is the first African American woman to serve as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court and was reelected with 76 percent of the vote, the highest vote percentage of all justices on the ballot.
* Brown grew up the daughter of sharecroppers in segregated, rural Alabama. Brown spent her childhood listening to her grandmother’s stories about NAACP lawyer Fred Gray, who defended Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.
* As a single mother, Brown worked her way through California State University-Sacramento and UCLA law school.
* The California Supreme Court’s Chief Justice has called on Brown to write the majority opinion more times in 2001 and 2002 than any other Justice on the court.
Bipartisan Support For Janice Rogers Brown:
* 12 of Brown’s judicial colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, write: “We who have worked with her on a daily basis know her to be extremely intelligent, keenly analytical and very hard working. We know that she is a jurist who applies the law without favor, without bias and with an even hand.” (Claire Cooper, “Coalition vows to fight nomination,” Sacramento Bee, 10/21/03)
* A bipartisan group of 16 California law professors praise Brown’s “commitment to individual freedom, even when rights are asserted by unpopular litigants.” (Claire Cooper, “Coalition vows to fight nomination,” Sacramento Bee, 10/21/03)
* San Francisco Chronicle Editorial: “It takes judges with a deep respect for the law, and a willingness to set aside their personal views when making decisions. It takes judges with fearlessness, with a sense of confidence that the ‘right’ outcome will not always be the most POPULAR. Californians have a chance to cast a vote for an independent judiciary on November 3 by retaining … Supreme Court justices who … have all demonstrated a commitment to sound decision making…. The judiciary's job is to make sure that laws are applied fairly. George, Chin, Mosk and Brown have approached this duty with diligence and integrity. They should be retained.” (Editorial, “Vote for Independent Court,” The San Francisco Chronicle, 9/27/98)
Janice Rogers Brown’s Record:
Myth: Brown is out of the mainstream on affirmative action.
* Fact: In 1997, California voters amended their state constitution by approving Proposition 209, which prohibits the state government from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race. Brown was only doing her job in authoring a majority opinion for a unanimous California Supreme Court decision enforcing Proposition 209.
* Fact: Because of the clear terms of Proposition 209, the U.S. Supreme Court recently noted that California state law prohibits racial preferences in admissions. This puts Justice Brown's critics at odds with Justice O'Connor, who authored the U.S. Supreme court’s opinion, and Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer, who joined her.
* Fact: Every single judge involved in the case, at the trial court, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court agreed with Brown.
Myth: Brown is out of the mainstream on parental consent for abortions.
* Fact: Brown dissented with the California Supreme Court’s divided four to three opinion invalidating a law passed by California state legislature requiring parental consent before a minor can obtain an abortion. Justice Brown would have deferred to the state legislature and enforced the law.
* Fact: Then-Justice Stanley Mosk, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as the court's “leading liberal,” voted with Brown to uphold the law.
* Fact: According to a June 2000 Los Angeles poll, 82 percent of Americans support parental consent laws.
Myth: Brown views President Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation as the beginning of a “socialist revolution.”
* Fact: Brown does not believe the New Deal was a “socialist revolution;” Democrats are taking out of context remarks that Brown delivered to a group of students in an attempt to explore academic issues.
Myth: Brown agrees with the Supreme Court’s 1905 decision in Lochner v. New York striking down a law limiting the exploitation of child labor.
* Fact: Brown has criticized the Lochner decision and has also criticized attempts by justices in the Lochner case to use the Constitution’s due process clause as a blank check to insert their personal political views into the Constitution.
* Fact: The particular issue Brown was criticizing was the implication in a footnote of Justice Holmes’ dissent that the Constitution takes no view of economic liberties.
Myth: Brown is anti-government.
* Fact: Brown has been a public servant for a quarter-century. She thinks there are many things government does well, many things only government can do and has criticized the unintended consequences of some things government does.
* Fact: Brown has been critical of the government taking over roles previously played by neighbors, communities and churches. She thinks it's important for us to preserve civil society, but is not denying the government’s role.
Myth: Brown has a poor record when it comes to verbal harassment and civil rights laws.
* Fact: As someone who has been on the receiving end of that kind of conduct, Brown absolutely believes nobody should be subjected to verbal slurs.
* Fact: Brown was simply saying in the case in question that the threat of monetary damages is a deterrent to harassment.
Myth: The ABA has suggested Brown is not well-qualified.
* Fact: A majority of the ABA evaluation committee found Brown qualified.
Myth: Brown was hostile to low-income housing in San Francisco.
* Fact: Brown understands San Francisco has a problem with housing prices, but has said there is an express prohibition in the constitution, both U.S. and California, that says however beneficial the government’s purposes, it cannot take private property without paying just compensation.
* Fact: Justice Brown’s views on the importance of property rights and their interrelatedness with the notion of liberty, far from being out of the mainstream, are in line with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Myth: Brown’s ideological conservatism prevents her from being a fair and impartial judge.
* Fact: Justice Brown has said, “I really don't think that the conservative view that I have, which is a classical conservatism, is ideological at all. But I can certainly say that I'm not ideological as a judge.”
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