[pogo101]

Lengthy but intriguing law-prof analysis of What Went Wrong and Whither Go We Now.

[Congressman Billybob]

This is the best, clearest explication of the political and legal issues in bench nominations that I have ever read. And I say that as someone who has practiced in the Supreme Court for decades, and followed the subject closely.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "We Are Running for Congress -- Maybe," discussion thread on FR.

[LisaFab]

Good post on a bad day.

[cake_crumb]

"Although the Republican leadership gestured toward the nuclear option, in the end the Democrats prevailed and Estrada withdrew"

The Democrats should NOT have prevailed!

[Huck]

Awesome post. Thank you!

[Keith in Iowa]

I can sum up the problem in 6 words: Republican Senate leadership is an oxymoron.

[Servant of the Nine]

24/7 Won't Work The contemporary filibuster is a polite affair. Charles Schumer does not talk through the night, bleary eyed and exhausted. Why not? Couldn't the filibuster be broken if the Republicans forced the Democrats to go 24/7? No. Because the 24/7 option actually gives an advantage to the minority. Why? In order to force a 24/7 filibuster, the majority must maintain a quorum at all times, but the minority need only have one Senator present to maintain the filibuster. So 24/7 both exhausts and distracts the majority, while allowing the minority the opportunity to rest and carry on their ordinary business.

Not necessarily true. The majority can have a quorum call as often as they wish and send the sgt at arms and capital police to arrest the dems and bring them to the floor. They will get just as tierd, and look as foolish as the Texas State Senate hidfing in New Mexico.

SO9

[Puddleglum]

good article - ping to myself

[cake_crumb]

"The problem with recess appointments is that they expire at the end of the next term of the Senate."

I tried to point this out earlier today. Several times. People just don't want to listen and the Bush bashers are bound and detirmined to drown me out.

[StriperSniper]

Bump for later.

[El Gato]

Both sides now seem committed to a judicial selection process that concieves of the federal judiciary as the third political branch. Not the least dangersous branch, but the most dangerous branch. The branch that carries out a political agenda with the security of life tenure and the power of final decision about Constitutional questions. Can that bell be unrung? I wish that I could say "yes" with confidence, but alas, I cannot.

For the most part it has not been Conservative Judges and Justices who have turned the judiciary into a polictical organization and the "most dangeous" branch of government. It wasn't conservative justices who said that "No state shall .. deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" meant that it was OK to do so for a "good cause" or at least a politically correct one. Nor was it conservative justices who took away the power of the states to define what constitutes a crime in their states. And that's just in the last session of the Supreme Court. It certainly hasn't been "strict constructionist" judges that have declared that "right of the people" means "right of the National Guard" (not even the right of National Guardsmen!).

[rdf]

Thanks for an excellent post

Cheers,

Richard F.

[thedugal]

I usually just skim articles on FR, but this one had me parsing each word. Great article, highly informative.

[unspun]

Thank you for posting this very educational analysis, p1.

unspun's unsolicited ping: uno momento, especially for those whom I pinged earlier on this critical issue. This is well worth the read.

We should use this news, though, especially in bringing hispanic households to the right side.

[Reb Raider]

This is a lengthy but excellent analysis of what has happened and what the future possibly holds for the judicial nomination process. A line has been crossed by the dems in the Senate and it's not just "politics as usual".

[PogySailor]

Good article. I will be very interested to see what the next move in this ideological war will be.

[headsonpikes]

A worthwhile read.

[livius]

Very informative.

[Dog Gone]

This is the most intelligent and accurate article I have seen which even touches the subject. 99% of the reporting is either superficial or agenda-driven and inaccurate.

[TigersEye]

bump to read later

[Cicero]

It seems to me that Frist has allowed the Democrats to keep a low profile on this issue. The majority of Americans don't even know there IS a judicial filibuster. The news media are aiding and abetting, as usual, by failing to report it, but it would be harder for them to help the Dems cover up their obstructionsim if Frist didn't make it so easy for them.