Free Republic

With three weeks to Election Day, it is time for Republicans to close the deal with swing voters -- independents, Southern and Midwestern moderates, blue-collar households, Catholics, and Hispanics. The tactics of Senate Democrats and their liberal allies are now so nakedly partisan that the judiciary could well become the issue that wins tight Senate races and presidential battleground states for the GOP. (A secondary benefit of campaigning on this issue is that it establishes a clear "judiciary mandate" -- an advantage when addressing the Senate's rule for filibusters and a bonus when the time comes to nominate a Supreme...

Fri November 14, 2003 10:05 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats capped a nonstop U.S. Senate debate of nearly 40 hours on Friday by sustaining a procedural hurdle against one of President Bush's four blocked federal appeals court nominees, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen. Democrats were also ready to block two additional conservative judicial nominees on Friday -- California jurists Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown -- to raise to the number stonewalled to six.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After 40 hours of nonstop talking organized by Republicans to protest filibusters on judicial nominees, Senate Democrats added two more Friday to the list of judges they have stalled successfully. Democrats declared the longest uninterrupted Senate debate in 15 years a victory for their side. Republicans warned that the Democrats' methods could come back to haunt them. In each of three successive votes Friday morning, Republicans secured 53 votes to advance the judicial nominees to a final confirmation vote. That was seven short of the 60 needed to overcome Democratic resistance. As in similar confrontations on judges...

by John Gizzi Posted Nov 14, 2003 As Senate Republicans last week conducted a marathon 30 hours of debate to protest and spotlight the Democrats' unprecedented filibuster to block confirmation of appeals court judges, President Bush called three of his nominees into the Oval Office and threw down the gauntlet to the obstructionist Senate Democrats. Flanked by Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, California Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown and California Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl, Bush said, "These people deserve an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, and yet a few senators are playing politics and it's wrong and...

<p>We hope 100 men and women in Washington got a good sleep last night because they aren't likely to catch a lot of ZZZs tonight or tomorrow. They'll be participants in the Senate GOP's plan to stage a 30-hour talkathon on the Democrats' unprecedented filibuster of President Bush's judicial nominees.</p>

Fri September 5, 2003 02:05 PM ET By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said on Friday he does not expect other stalled judicial nominees to follow Miguel Estrada's lead and drop their confirmation bids, but "we are always concerned." "I've basically told them, 'Hang in there. We'll do our best to get you through,"' Hatch, a Utah Republican, told Reuters. "Let the process work." Estrada got fed up with the process. After waiting more than two years for a Senate confirmation vote, Estrada asked President Bush on Thursday to withdraw his nomination to the...

<p>A prominent black civil rights lawyer from California quit the NAACP this week after a disagreement with the group over his support of one of President Bush's judicial nominees.</p> <p>After Leo Terrell appeared at a news conference last week in support of a nominee being blocked by Democrats, two officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People telephoned him and tried "bullying" him over his position, he said.</p>

From Fox News: Civil Rights Leader Quits NAACP Over Judicial Nominee Friday, August 08, 2003 By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos WASHINGTON — A Democratic champion of the left has resigned as a member of the NAACP, saying officials tried to strong-arm him into dropping his endorsement of a controversial Bush judicial nominee. Los Angeles civil rights attorney and radio talk show host Leo Terrell (search), who has made headlines in recent years for defending friend O.J. Simpson, and speaking out against the Bush administration, accused the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (search) of "an old-fashioned backdoor power-play," and...

<p>A prominent black civil rights lawyer from California quit the NAACP this week after a disagreement with the group over his support of one of President Bush's judicial nominees.</p> <p>After Leo Terrell appeared at a news conference last week in support of a nominee being blocked by Democrats, two officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People telephoned him and tried "bullying" him over his position, he said.</p>

<p>The NAACP claims to be a champion of diversity, but its tolerance apparently doesn't extend to its own members who think for themselves. Attorney Leo Terrell learned that recently when he spoke out in support of Carolyn Kuhl, one of President Bush's beleaguered nominees for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The head of the NAACP's Washington office called and ordered him to cease and desist, so yesterday Mr. Terrell resigned from the "civil-rights" group rather than be muzzled.</p>

Our Judges Should Embody Fairness and Respect Stop Bush from Appointing Unqualified Judges Since February, Senate Democrats have blocked the arch-conservative Migel Estrada from getting appointed to the Federal Appellate Court. It is time for them to step up again The Senate is expected to vote by the end of July on the confirmation of the next truly offensive judicial nominee, Carolyn Kuhl, who has a record of attempting to undermine laws protecting basic civil rights: She favored weakening laws against sexual harassment in the workplace; She supported tax exemptions for Bob Jones University, despite its racist policies; She advocates...

<p>Democrats strenuously oppose the nomination of California Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl, suggesting she may become the third Bush nominee filibustered in the Senate.</p> <p>In a letter to the Judiciary Committee chairman, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, California Democrats, urged "that no further action be taken on the nominee."</p>

Boxer, Feinstein Jointly Oppose L.A. Judge's U.S. Court Nomination Citing a Senate tradition of deferring to views of a nominee's home-state politicians, the senators urge 'no further action' on appointment. By Henry Weinstein Times Staff Writer June 7, 2003 WASHINGTON — California's two Democratic U.S. senators have urged the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to halt any further action on the nomination of Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl to the federal bench.

Another Exceptional Nominee Is A Target for A FilibusterBy John NowackiCNSNews.com Commentary June 03, 2003 Senate liberals are attacking so many of President Bush's judicial nominees these days that it can be difficult to keep track of what they're saying about whom. Miguel Estrada is supposedly being filibustered because they a) hardly know anything about him and need more information, or b) know everything about him and claim he's an "extremist." Which explanation you get apparently depends on what a particular Senate Democrat ate for breakfast; even so, some occasionally forget themselves and use both excuses in the same day....