Free Republic

<p>March 13, 2004 -- The Wall Street Journal last fall reported the details of Democratic strategy memos on how to derail Bush administration judicial nominations. An investigation disclosed that GOP staffers had obtained the documents from computers shared with Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. But a 65-page report released by the Senate's sergeant-at-arms confirmed what the Republicans had said all along: They didn't hack into any computers or steal any documents.</p>

Sen. Rick Santorum (R.-Pa.) says he wants an investigation of the content of controversial memos produced by the Democratic staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee to determine whether the Democrats committed any wrongdoing in their efforts to block President Bush's judicial nominees. Meanwhile, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) and Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) appear content to let Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle investigate only how the memos came into the hands of Republican staffers--a probe that was inspired by the Democrats, serves the interests of the Democrats, and turns attention away from the far more serious question of whether...

By LARRY O'DELL Associated Press Writer RICHMOND, Va. An evenly divided federal appeals court refused Wednesday to reconsider a ruling that group prayers said before evening meals at Virginia Military Institute are unconstitutional. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 6-6 vote leaves intact a three-judge panel's ruling that the state-supported military college's traditional prayers, although nondenominational and voluntary, violated the constitutional separation of church and state. "Put simply, VMI's supper prayer exacts an unconstitutional toll on the consciences of religious objectors," the panel said in its unanimous ruling in April. Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for state Attorney General Jerry...

The judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The 19th-century courthouse that houses the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit sits across from a CVS and a Dress Barn on a desultory stretch of Main Street in Richmond, Va. The entrance -- peeling ''Pull'' sign, metal detector, dim lobby -- is not awe-inspiring. But upstairs in the courtrooms, beneath the pendulous chandeliers and the oil portraits of former jurists, a hush prevails. Whether or not the judges are on the bench, people whisper. It is as if they tacitly accept that the...

What is your reaction to the Senate's approval of Judge Dennis Shedd to the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals?

The Senate's online voting record shows simply that the nomination of Dennis Shedd to a seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was confirmed last night by a 55 to 44 vote. But there was much more to it than that.The 44 votes against Shedd, all Democrats, were the most that Democrats have been able to muster against any Bush judicial nominee who came before the full Senate for a confirmation vote. And in that is a message — and a threat — to President Bush. Before last night's vote, Democrats worked hard to make sure they could...

Last Friday, several of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate made plans for a filibuster to stop the confirmation of Dennis Shedd, President Bush's choice for a seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Frustrated that they did not have the votes to defeat Shedd in the Judiciary Committee, chairman Patrick Leahy, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and others explored the idea of blocking the nomination before it could reach a vote in the full Senate.The Democrats were cheered on by a number of liberal interest groups, who have attacked Shedd as "insensitive" to the rights of minorities and...

Republicans concede they are powerless to win the confirmation of Dennis Shedd. With the Senate preparing to adjourn for the election recess, the fight over the federal-appeals-court nomination of Dennis Shedd has ended for the year, not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with something even less: the Republicans' quiet admission that they are powerless to end the Democratic block on Shedd's confirmation. It came Wednesday afternoon on the Senate floor. Angry that Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy had reneged on a promise to hold a vote on Shedd, Republicans had been weighing whether to attempt what is...