Advice on court picks

The Washington Times ^ | 7-121-05 | Manuel A. Miranda

[JZelle]

I don't want to tick off the president of the United States, but I think nominating Alberto Gonzales to be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court would be like throwing a party to which few people will come. And, loving this president as I do, I feel it is a duty to tell him so. It is not that the attorney general would not be confirmed, he would. But then so will any nominee the president sends no matter how many millions are spent. Once, two swords of Damocles hung over a high court nominee's head — the filibuster and, more commonly, rejection by the Senate. Now, a sword hangs over the filibuster's abuse — Majority Leader Bill Frist's "constitutional option." Mostly, Republican presidents have had to worry about a Democrat majority thwarting their Supreme Court nominations — but not now. The elder President Bush came close to losing on Clarence Thomas, the immensely popular Ronald Reagan had two losses (Robert Bork and Douglas Ginsburg), and a Democrat-controlled Senate rejected two of President Nixon's nominations (G. Harrold CarswellandClement Haynsworth). There is, however, little serious talk of "confirmability" these days. Mostly, the talk is about judicial confirmations war, for its own lucrative sake. Why else would highly paid liberal lobbyists like Ralph Neas love it so? The reason that confirmability is not much discussed is that this president has what Republican predecessors have not often had — a Republican-controlled Senate, plus 55 Republican senators and several Democrats running for re-election in Red States.

[Servant of the 9]

I have some simple advice on court picks

NO DAMNED LAWYERS

There is no requirement that a member of the Suprremes be a lawyer, unlike most other courts.

How about someone with basic reading comprehension skills and the ability to reason?

So9

[FearNoMan]

Advise on court picks? Here's a little to help narrow the field... and remind those in contention who it is they serve.

"The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both Congresses and courts --not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert that constitution."

--Abraham Lincoln (1809-assassinated 1865), speech in Cincinatti, OH, September 17, 1859