Posted on 07/11/2003 9:24:26 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Flint Township - A newly formed chapter of a national conservative group protested Thursday outside the local offices of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Holding signs saying "Quit playing politics with our judges" and "Free the Michigan four," about 25 people protested attempts by Stabenow and Sen. Carl Levin, both Democrats, to block President Bush's appointment of four nominees to the federal court of appeals.
Democrats Stabenow and Levin have used their status as the home-state lawmakers to put off a vote on four judges nominated by Bush for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"They won't let them come up for a vote," said Lanny Valentine of Davison Township, head of the Genesee County chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy.
This was the first public event for the group, which nationally is led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and advocates tax cuts, school choice and deregulation.
"The tactic of denying hearings to judicial nominees to keep court seats open so the next president of a different political party could fill them should not be allowed to succeed," Stabenow and Levin said in a joint statement. "That is what this Republican tactic would do."
The partisan conflict actually stretches all the way back to the first President Bush, whose two nominations to the court in the last year of his presidency were blocked by Democrats.
Two of President Clinton's nominees were held up by Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee. One waited for four years for a hearing, the longest in Senate history.
Now there are four vacancies. Bush has nominated Richard Griffin, David McKeague, Susan Bieke Neilson and Henry W. Saad to the bench, but Stabenow and Levin have asked him to include one Democrat.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals includes Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky.
Flint, Michigan - The Genesse County Chapter of Michigan Citizens for a Sound Economy (MI CSE) held a rally today to protest Senator Debbie Stabenow’s obstruction of President Bush’s nominations for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Michigan citizens gathered outside Senator Stabenow’s district office to demand she "Free the Michigan Four."
President Bush has nominated four qualified individuals to fill the four vacancies in the Sixth Circuit that have been deemed judicial emergencies by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Despite that, Senator Stabenow and her Michigan colleague, Senator Carl Levin, are taking advantage of Senate tradition which allows them to block judicial nominees from their home state.
Blocked nominations have caused judicial crises around the country, resulting in more summary judgments and rushed decisions. The large number of open seats in the courts is creating a judicial system that is overworked and understaffed. That means Americans are being deprived of their judicial rights as they are forced to wait longer for their day in court and judges are forced to make rushed decisions.
By requiring judicial nominees to pass litmus tests in order to get approved, Senator Stabenow and her obstructionist colleagues in the Senate have chosen to serve their political ideology at the expense of the judicial system.
Four citizens attended the rally dressed as judges with their hands tied behind their backs to illustrate that Senator Stabenow is holding Michigan’s judicial system hostage.
Lanny Valentine, a local businessman who is a member of MI CSE attended the rally and made following comments:
“We are here to let Senator Stabenow know that Michigan citizens are tired of having justice held hostage to ideological politics.
“Senator Stabenow and Senator Levin are creating a judicial emergency. Our nation was founded on the rule of law. Judges should be evaluated strictly on whether or not they value the supremacy of the law over political ideology.
“We call on Senator Stabenow to free the Michigan four.”
2 posted on 3/6/02 7:30 AM Pacific by grammymoon:
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