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President Trump has nominated a slate of solid picks for the federal bench, including a new list of nominees this week. Among them is Kurt D. Engelhardt. Trump nominated Engelhardt to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a district that covers the area from Alabama to the Rio Grande. Engelhardt already serves as a United States District Court judge in New Orleans. Engelhardt will be familiar to PJ Media readers. He is the judge who wrote a scathing 129-page order blistering the misconduct of lawyers at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the local New Orleans U.S. Attorney's...

In the ongoing dispute between the state's two U.S. senators and the Trump administration, the White House counsel accuses the lawmakers of failing to consider the administration's pick for a judicial vacancy on a federal appellate court. The White House last week nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bounds, a young, politically conservative federal prosecutor, for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, want U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez, a Republican, for the vacancy. Wyden and Merkley have vowed to block Bounds' nomination, saying that he wasn't vetted through their bipartisan judicial...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended Sunday her much-criticized grilling of a judicial nominee over her Catholic faith, saying that Amy Coney Barrett had made “questionable” statements in her writings. Ms. Feinstein said that she considered Catholicism to be a “great religion,” but that it was appropriate for the Senate Judiciary Committee to quiz Ms. Barrett about her religious beliefs. “Having said that, this is a woman who has no real trial or court experience,” said Ms. Feinstein on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And therefore there is no record. She’s a professor, which is fine, but all we have to look...

The conservative Judicial Crisis Network said Wednesday it’s running an ad in Minnesota targeting Democratic Sen. Al Franken for refusing to back one of President Trump’s federal court judges, telling the senator to “stop being petty” and “grow up.” Mr. Franken announced last week he won’t return his “blue slip” for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras, Mr. Trump’s nominee for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Under Senate tradition, the chamber won’t proceed on a judicial nominee unless both home-state senators return their blue slips, signifying acquiescence in the pick. “Justice David Stras earned more votes and a...

Sen. Al Franken said Tuesday that he will use an arcane Senate tradition to try to derail one of President Trump’s appeals court nominees, marking an escalation in what has become a nasty fight over the shape of the federal judiciary. Mr. Franken said he won’t return his “blue slip” for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras, Mr. Trump’s nominee for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Under Senate tradition, the chamber won’t proceed on a judicial nominee unless both home-state senators return their blue slips, signifying acquiescence in the pick. Left with little power to filibuster, the blue...

President Barack Obama delivers a statement announcing the nomination of three candidates for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in the Rose Garden of the White House, June 4, 2013. Nominees from left are: Robert Leon Wilkins, Cornelia "Nina" Pillard, and Patricia Ann Millett. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) (CNSNews.com) – The Senate will consider the nomination of Cornelia Pillard, a vocal abortion advocate who said abstinence education was unconstitutional for violating “reproductive justice,” to serve as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a hearing Wednesday. “The equal...

(CNSNews.com) – Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dodged a question about the controversial writings of Goodwin Liu, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year. Feinstein instead said that Liu indicated that he understands the difference between being an advocate and a judge. To serve on the court, Liu must be confirmed by the Senate. At the Capitol on Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Feinstein, “In a 2008 law review article Professor Liu argued that there was a constitutional right to welfare – what he...

Here is video from Sean Hannity tonight who reported that President Obama is trying to appoint a man to the bench as a Federal Judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, who has been sympathetic toward a serial killer. Michael Ross was “the most notorious serial killer in the state of Connecticut.” Between 1981 and 1984 he raped and murdered eight young women. Ross was sentenced to death by a Connecticut jury in 1987. But Judge Robert Chatigny went out of his way to keep the execution from taking place. In fact, GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions says he has...

The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the hearing for a controversial Court of Appeals nominee after the panel received a letter from a home-state prosecutor blasting the candidate as a judicial loose cannon and after Republicans raised concerns about bias in favor of sex offenders. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny gained notoriety in 2005 for his role in trying to fight the execution of convicted serial killer and rapist Michael Ross, also known as The Roadside Strangler, whom Chatigny had described as a victim of his own "sexual sadism." His conduct in that case, which included threatening to go...

Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on five of President Obama's controversial court-and-justice nominees. Among them is federal district court nominee Edward Chen of Northern California, whose radical agenda has not been fully exposed and requires further public hearings rather than a vote. If the Senate reveals Mr. Chen's long record of ill-advised statements and legal positions so that the general public can listen, plenty of Democratic senators will have to reconsider voting for such an extreme nominee. As a federal magistrate in San Francisco, Mr. Chen objected to the singing of "America the Beautiful" at a...

“Imagine a judicial nominee said ‘my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman,’” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., blogged today. “Wouldn't they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism. A white man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.” He also tweeted similar comments, in so doing joined the ranks of conservative voices such as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh accusing Judge Sonia Sotomayor of being a racist for her 2001 comments. The conservatives are decrying a comment made by Judge Sotomayor in 2001,...

President Bush on Tuesday withdrew a controversial federal appeals court nominee, a nod to the Senate's new Democratic leadership. Bush had just resubmitted Norman Randy Smith of Idaho to the Senate last week for a seat on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. At the time, Bush also withdrew four nominees. The president sent Smith's name to the Senate in December 2005, again last August, before his original nomination expired, and again in November, as required after Congress goes on an extended break.

Just six months after quitting the all-male social club to which he belonged for 50 years, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is questioning one of President Bush's nominees to the federal bench about his membership in an all-male dining club. "What is your reason for failing to resign from the club any earlier than February 2, 2006?" Mr. Kennedy demanded in writing of Oklahoma lawyer Jerome A. Holmes, nominated to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Documents provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obtained by The Washington Times show that Mr. Holmes belonged to the Men's Dinner Club of...

Disappointing news to report from Capitol Hill: Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) has caved in to Democrat demands to give D.C. Circuit Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a second hearing. What’s most troubling about the news is that a second hearing won’t do anything to change the vote of a single Democrat on the committee. However, it will give them an opportunity to drag Kavanaugh through the mud. Here’s an excerpt from the AP report: Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter on Thursday granted Democrats a hearing to question White House aide and judicial nominee Brett Kavanaugh on his role in the...

WASHINGTON - Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter on Thursday granted Democrats a hearing to question White House aide and judicial nominee Brett Kavanaugh on his role in the administration's secret wiretapping program, its torture policy and any relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The move put off, for now, a repeat of last year's parliamentary showdown over President Bush's nominees. "I don't want to place the Senate in the position we were in a year ago at this time," Specter, R-Pa., said. Democrats lauded the decision. "It's the least that can be done for the nominee to the second highest...

The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn when the Justice Department said that the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down this coming week because he had been nominated to a judgeship by President George W. Bush. The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department's Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Democrats swiftly questioned the move's timing, and called for a special prosecutor as Bush...

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Help send millions of letters to the President encouraging him to stay the course. As you know, Justice O'Conner has announced her retirement. During his campaign, President Bush promised to appoint judges who shared his views on the role of judges, such as Justices Scalia and Thomas. The President was elected by voters who share the President's philosophy. Send the email asking that the President hold fast on his promise and appoint someone with that philosophy. He will be under tremendous pressure from every leftwing organization and Senator in the country to back down and appoint a liberal. They will...

White House hopeful Hillary Clinton said Friday that she wants President Bush to consult with Democrats before he picks a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "I urge the president to take seriously the Constitution's charge and to engage the U.S. Senate - both Republicans and Democrats - in a process of genuine consultation in order to identify and to ultimately confirm a consensus nominee," the top Democrat said, in a statement posted to her web site. She called on Bush "to put partisanship aside and to honor the Constitution's mandate that he seek the 'advice and...

The filibuster isn't a noble institution, it's a tactic - and one with a checkered past, at that. Liberals decried it in the 1960s when segregationist Southern Democrats used it to thwart the will of the majority to block civil rights legislation. But at least that tawdry application of the filibuster was consistent with its purpose in the United States Senate as a procedure to force legislative compromise.