Litigation

Confirmation Votes Part of ?Partisan Battleground? Now

By Peter Hardin

Don’t expect to see Senate votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee soon that resemble Justice Anthony Kennedy’s 97-0 tally in 1988 or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 96-3 total in 1993.

A Wall Street Journal article discusses this trend and offers a conclusion: “Supreme Court confirmations are now part of the partisan battleground, with groups on both sides aggressively pressuring senators.” But the article also asks scholars and senators why nominees for the highest court now face such strong opposition votes in the Senate.

Tracing current trends back to the defeat of nominee Robert Bork in 1987 and the nasty fight over Clarence Thomas four years later, the article suggests confirmation battles have become almost a ritual in our culture wars:

“These fights whetted appetites on both sides to claim judicial scalps, and, over time, judicial battles developed into a full-scale part of culture wars.”

One of the people who has experienced such a battle and who is willing to characterize it is Miguel Estrada. Democrats blocked him for a federal judgeship seven years ago. They noted that he lacked judicial experience.

Republicans who minimized it then, in turn, have emphasized that aspect of the career record of Elena Kagan, the former Harvard Law School dean who will face a confirmation vote in early August. Estrada wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee:

“I respectfully submit that it brings no credit to our government, and risks affirmative harm to our courts, when our elected representatives simply swap talking points–emphasizing the same considerations they previously minimized or derided–only to revert to their former arguments as soon as electoral fortunes turn.”

You can learn more about partisanship over judicial nominations from Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic. Or, you can learn more about Kagan from Gavel Grab and from the JAS Replacing Justice Stevens page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 23, 2010 (boomark / email).