Federal Judiciary

Pryor Restraint

Posted on April 04, 2008
In this post (http://www.southernappeal.org/index.php/archives/2420) from Southern Appeal, I note my today's column from the Washington Examiner, which pays homage to Judge Bill Pryor's recent essay in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Short version: Again, Pryor distinguishes himself, while the hypocrisy of the left is exposed...

Hatch Presses His Point on Judges

Posted on April 03, 2008
Sen. Orrin Hatch expanded on his op-ed in Monday?s NRO with a floor speech yesterday, again emphasizing both the shamefully slow pace of judicial hearings and confirmations and Judiciary Chairman Leahy?s hypocrisy on the issue. As part of his remarks, Sen...

Specter and McConnell on the SJC Stoppage

Posted on April 02, 2008
Sen. Specter is talking about shutting down the Senate to get some action in the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) on judicial nominations, according to the Wall Street Journal. There's a thread about that at Volokh Conspiracy. Sen. McConnell is also annoyed: Three months into the New Year, the Senate has not confirmed a single judicial nominee of any kind, and it?s held only one hearing on a circuit nominee since September of last year...

Specter and McConnell on the

Posted on April 02, 2008
Sen. Specter is talking about shutting down the Senate to get some action on judicial nominations according to the Wall Street Journal. There's a thread about that at Volokh Conspiracy. Sen. McConnell is also annoyed: Three months into the New Year, the Senate has not confirmed a single judicial nominee of any kind, and it?s held only one hearing on a circuit nominee since September of last year...

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Riley v. Kennedy Podcast

Posted on April 02, 2008
The Federalist Society has an excellent podcast up concerning the Supreme Court case of Riley v. Kennedy, featuring future Supreme Court justice (and, more importantly, fraternity brother of the fedster), Kevin Newsom. Check it out. It is always a treat listening to Kevin discuss complex legal issues...

Ocean-Front Property Available in Utah

Posted on March 31, 2008
Senator Hatch placed this advertisement today in National Review: So far in the 110th Congress, we have confirmed 31 district-court and just six appeals-court nominees for President Bush. Simply meeting the historical average will require confirming 44 district-court and nine appeals-court nominees in the next several months...

Weekend Open Thread

Posted on March 28, 2008
Here's one of those horrible "originalist" judges, irretrievably stuck in the past. I hope you get a laugh out of it. The judge is portrayed by Rowan Atkinson, from the British TV series "Not the Nine O'Clock News." read more

Feddie v. Publius: On Original Meaning and the Second Amendment

Posted on March 27, 2008
Dearest Publius: While it is true that the "colonial era has passed," the colonial Constitution is still with us. You may recall that "we the people" entered into a compact of sorts vis-a-vis this Constitution, and agreed to certain terms. We also recognized certain natural rights "retained" by the people, some of which were enumerated...

More Cox News

Posted on March 25, 2008
Because Whacker77 and other great readers of this site continue to ask the latest on the Veep chances of onetime (brief) 9th Circuit nominee Chris Cox, it is worth noting that not only did Robert Novak tout him last week, but that today the Wall Street Journal's online Political Diary did the same...

It's Time for Congress to Fix Judicial Pay

Posted on March 23, 2008
This morning in the Washington Post, George Will turns his attention to the question of compensation for federal judges. Will points to this report by the Chief Justice, which was issued by tradition on New Years Day, but "lost in the cacophony of political news...

Kmiec and Obama

Posted on March 23, 2008
Douglas Kmiec has written a statement endorsing Barack Obama. This will probably not start a stampede from the GOP to Obama. I certainly hope not. Kmiec was an official in the Reagan Justice Department, and he was also a leading supporter of Mitt Romney (I supported Romney too)...

The Leahy Rule

Posted on March 22, 2008
The so-called "Thurmond Rule" has been described online by Ed Whelan, and Curt Levey, and also by the scribes over at Wikipedia. According to this alleged "Thurmond Rule," the confirmation process is supposed to stop near the end of a presidential term...

A Non Sequitur From George Will

Posted on March 20, 2008
In a column today, George Will says: There must be a judicial leash on governments to prevent them from arbitrarily asserting that the plain language of a statute means something that it plainly does not say. So far so good. Then he turns around and arbitrarily asserts that the plain language of the Equal Protection Clause means something that it plainly does not say: [E]qual protection ? should mean that government may interfere with a citizen's economic liberty only to promote important government interests that cannot be advanced through less restrictive means...

Snyder v. Louisiana

Posted on March 19, 2008
In the post immediately below, Quin criticizes Justice Alito's opinion in Snyder v. Louisiana. I read the case, and am not quite as upset about it. It always aggravates me when a court overturns some governmental action, without bothering to say what constitutional provision is empowering the court do so, as if the Court does not even really need constitutional authority to do as it pleases...

Alito and Roberts Blow a Case

Posted on March 19, 2008
It behooves us who have fought for confirmations of judicial conservatives to monitor the performance of those judges after they reach the bench. As this site's earliest and fiercest advocate for Samuel Alito, and as somebody who continues to admire Alito greatly and who is still happy Alito is on the bench, I must now regretfully report that Alito has written a real stinker of an opinion, joined by all the other justices except the superb Clarence Thomas (who wrote the dissent) and Antonin Scalia...

How Not To Depoliticize Judicial Confirmations

Posted on March 15, 2008
Professors Ilya Somin (blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy) and Rick Hills (blogging at PrawfsBlawg) suggest a culprit behind the recent spate of hotly contested judicial nominations. Here's how Professor Somin puts it: One of the reasons why judicial confirmations are so hotly contested is that political movements have found that it is much easier to "change" the Constitution through creative interpretation by sympathetic judges than to go through the almost insuperable obstacle of the amendment process?...

My Take on Specter vs. Leahy

Posted on March 14, 2008
Over at the Examiner (here) , I try to put into perspective Sen. Specter's admirable efforts to prod Sen. Leahy to confirm more judges. It's nothing that readers of this site haven't heard before, but because it organizes the subject into what I hope is a compelling argument, I urge anybody who likes it to try to spread it widely via links, etc...

New Fourth Circuit Nominee

Posted on March 13, 2008
G. Steven Agee, of Virginia, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit, vice J. Michael Luttig, resigned. Here's some background from Findlaw. Hat Tip: Courtwatcher.

Oral Arguments are Next Tuesday on the DC Gun Ban, and the Solicitor General May Change Course

Posted on March 13, 2008
Oral arguments are scheduled for Tuesday, March 18 in the DC gun rights case, which I previously wrote about here at ConfirmThem. Robert Novak reports today that President Bush is supporting the position expressed by the bipartisan congressional majority (including Vice President Cheney and Senator McCain), in support of the DC Circuit opinion by Judge Silberman...

175 Years Ago Today

Posted on March 12, 2008
James Madison wrote on March 12, 1833: It is but too common to read the expressions of a remote period thro' the modern meaning of them....The remark is equally applicable to the Constitution itself. This was nothing new for Madison. Here's a similar quote from June 25, 1824: I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation...

No. 44 Should Boldly Recess-Appoint

Posted on March 10, 2008
In today?s issue of the National Law Journal, Catholic University law professor Victor Williams decries the fact that the confirmation process for federal judges, as well as for executive and regulatory nominees, has become a lengthy ?Orwellian ordeal ? anonymous holds, blue slips, slow walking, character attacks and filibusters...

Don't Sit Out the 2008 Election Campaigns

Posted on March 09, 2008
Senator McCain has some truly admirable statements at his web site about his judicial philosophy and about human dignity. So don?t even think about thinking about sitting out the election in November. And if that's not motivation enough, check out this March 7 New York Times headline: "Senate Democrats Hope for a Majority Not Seen in 30 Years: 60 Seats"...

Ed Whelan Lies!

Posted on March 08, 2008
Don't miss Ed Whelan's excellent piece in The Weekly Standard titled "Obama's Constitution: The Rhetoric and the Reality." As Whelan indicates, Obama may be a genial and intelligent person, but giving him the nomination power would be a mistake. Whelan veers off course, however, at the very end of his critique...

Couple Friday News Items (and a Clip from Casablanca)

Posted on March 07, 2008
The Washington Times reports today: Sen. John McCain, in his post-victory debut before the conservative movement's top donors and leaders, will address the Council for National Policy's annual winter meeting here today...."McCain should contrast his approach to Supreme Court appointments with that of Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told The Washington Times...

Welcome Back, Southern Appeal

Posted on March 05, 2008
Our friend Feddie, who led many of us to THIS site (ConfirmTHem) from his own site, now has resumed publication of the great blog Southern Appeal: Welcome back, feddie!

Cox at the Helm

Posted on March 05, 2008
Again I take the liberty to broaden the focus here from court appointments to broader legal issues. Just as an FYI, my latest on legal matters at the Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/a-1259388~Quin_Hillyer__Investors_will_be_safe_w... The best tort reform is to avoid lawsuits in the first place...

Cox at the Helm

Posted on March 05, 2008
Again I take the liberty to broaden the focus here from court appointments to broader legal issues. Just as an FYI, my latest on legal matters at the Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/a-1259388~Quin_Hillyer__Investors_will_be_safe_w... The best tort reform is to avoid lawsuits in the first place...

My take on Specter

Posted on March 04, 2008
I give props to Curt, and to Sen. Specter, in my post at the AmSpec blog here. It's time again to prepare for battle!

Ratcheting up the Pressure

Posted on March 04, 2008
Yesterday, Sen. Specter signaled that he had run out of patience with the nice-guy, behind-the-scenes approach to persuading Sen. Leahy to end his obstruction of judicial nominees. Specter met with conservative leaders to plot strategy for ratcheting up the pressure on Leahy and his Democratic colleagues, released a ?last chance? letter he sent to Leahy on Friday, and spoke on the Senate floor to initiate this new, higher-profile phase of the judges fight...

Quote of the Day

Posted on March 02, 2008
Open hearings with honest debate about qualifications and experience is the way to assess these nominations. ---The Advocate newspaper, Baton Rouge (Feb. 24, 2008).

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