Judiciary Panel to Hold Hearings on Previously Blocked Nominees

NYT ^ | 2/24/05 | DAVID STOUT

[ZGuy]

Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said today that his panel would hold confirmation hearings next week for two of President Bush's nominees for federal judgeships, who had been blocked earlier by Senate Democrats.

Mr. Specter said the committee would hold a hearing on Tuesday for William G. Myers III, a nominee for the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and on Thursday for District Judge Terrence W. Boyle, a nominee for the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

"I have a commitment to the president to give his nominees prompt hearings and to move promptly to get them out of committee, and we will do that," Mr. Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said at a Capitol Hill news conference. The Republicans have a 10-to-8 majority on the committee.

"When it comes to the floor, as you all know, it is another matter," the chairman said, acknowledging the controversies that the two nominations have already ignited, and which are sure to flame anew when they come up again.

Mr. Myers, the senior lawyer at the Department of the Interior, is a longtime lobbyist for ranching, mining and timber interests and has been accused by Democrats of being hostile to environmental causes. After Mr. Myers was nominated in 2003, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he would be "an anti-environmental activist" on the bench.

Senate Democrats blocked the nomination by filibuster, a parliamentary stalling device that requires 60 votes to overcome. Senate Republicans have called Mr. Myers a fine lawyer who deserves consideration. Conservative Republicans have said he would bring needed balance to the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit, which covers nine Western states and often considers cases involving the environment and land use.

The Ninth is widely regarded as the most liberal of the federal circuits, and some Westerners complain that it too often backs the federal government over the rights of property-owners.

Judge Boyle sits on a federal district court in North Carolina and was an aide to former Senator Jesse Helms, a Republican from that state. He was nominated for the Fourth Circuit in 2001 but was blocked at the request of then Senator John Edwards, Democrat of North Carolina. The Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, is regarded as the most conservative federal appeals court.

The two nominees are among 12 of President Bush's federal appeals court choices who were blocked in his first term and whom he has pledged to renominate. The Senate had 51 Republicans in his first term; it now has 55, giving Republicans a much better chance at overcoming filibusters.

Mr. Specter said he believes that Mr. Myers would provide "some balance" to the Ninth Circuit, and that several of the nominee's legal opinions show him to have a "progressive, moderate" philosophy.

Some nominations to federal appeals courts have become hotly contested in recent years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, in part because presidents often turn to those benches for Supreme Court nominees.

"In the background, as we all know, is the possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy," Mr. Specter said, alluding to the illness of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. "I think we all wish Chief Justice Rehnquist godspeed."

[b4its2late]

Adn they better get them to an up or down vote.

[ZGuy]

"I think we all wish Chief Justice Rehnquist godspeed."

You THINK??

[Tacis]

My bet - Sphincter will screw it up and do what Kennedy/Biden/Leahy tell him to do. These names, for whatever reasons, will never get out of committee. Frist is out playing with himself and is even more terrified of the dem than Sphincter.

We still do not know what happened to the memos that were on the dem computer. Frist has had them for more than a year. They must incriminate Sphincter and, maybe, Frist as well.

Wait 'til you see some of the reasons the committee won't rule on these fine judges. Files will be incomplete, there will be "serious and troubling questions" (even without Dashole) and the dems will shift from pure opposition to nit-picking. W will not get his judges and it will be because Sphincter (and his left wing staff) and Frist have knifed W in the back.