Federal Judiciary

Huckabee Explains

Posted on January 19, 2008
Fred Thompson and Quin rightfully criticize Mike Huckabee for saying the U.S. Constitution is ?a living, breathing document.? While it was certainly a poor choice of words, it?s only fair to point out that Huckabee was talking about the amendment process, not judge-made constitutional evolution...

Huckabee Wants Constitution to Live and Breathe

Posted on January 18, 2008
I kid you not. This morning on CNN, Mike Huckabee told John Roberts (the reporter, not the chief justice) that The United States has "a living, breathing Constitution." This, from the same man who said his idea of a good future Supreme Court pick would be Lavenski Smith...

New York v. Torres

Posted on January 16, 2008
I previously mentioned this strange case in which plaintiffs challenged New York's method of selecting judges as a violation of the First Amendment. Yesterday, SCOTUS unanimously rejected the challenge, and rightly so. But four of the justices (Breyer, Kennedy, Souter, and Stevens) took the opportunity to express their concern about the notion of judicial elections, on policy grounds, seeing as how judicial elections can turn judges into run-of-the-mill politicians...

SCOTUS Rejects ?Right to Live? Case

Posted on January 14, 2008
I was disappointed to hear that today the Supreme Court denied the plaintiff?s cert petition in Abigail Alliance v. von Eschenbach, a case in which the DC Circuit ruled en banc that there is no fundamental right to try to save one?s life through access to drugs not yet approved by the FDA...

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Give Conrad a Hearing

Posted on January 13, 2008
The Charlotte Observer makes a good point in their January 10 editorial...."Senate, do your duty: Give Conrad's nomination for 4th Circuit bench a hearing". J. Dickson Phillips of North Carolina was appointed by Jimmy Carter, and he took senior status in 1994...

U.S. Senator Sandra Day O'Connor?

Posted on January 12, 2008
Senator McCain ought to promise now to resign his Senate seat before the November 2008 presidential election, if he is nominated by the GOP. Otherwise, the Democratic Governor of Arizona will be able to appoint McCain's successor in the event that he is elected President...

6th Cir. Obstruction and the MI Primary

Posted on January 11, 2008
Michigan is home to both the next presidential primary and the decade?s most outrageous obstruction of judicial nominees. Back in 2001, Sens. Levin and Stabenow started blocking Michigan nominees to the Sixth Circuit and they?ve persisted to this day...

Huckabee on Judges, Part II

Posted on January 09, 2008
Following is a statement by Governor Mike Huckabee that recently went up at his website. We previously had a post here at ConfirmThem about Huckabee's stance on judges, and the following statement goes into some more detail: One of the greatest ongoing threats to our constitutional republic is the ever-increasing politicization of the federal judiciary...

McCain as Nominator in Chief

Posted on January 08, 2008
Here?s an interesting post over at Redstate: "Why the idea of John McCain appointing Supreme Court Justices worries me even more than Rudy Giuliani appointing them." Check it out. UPDATE: We'd be remiss if we didn't also point out this recent McCain quote: "Can you find me one republican who now thinks we should have only 51% to confirm a judge?" Yes...

Confirm Applebaum?

Posted on January 06, 2008
The Onion has a humorous confirmation-related article. Hat Tip: John Kalinger.

Miranda Discusses Whether McCain Would be Okay on Judges

Posted on January 05, 2008
I got an email from Manny Miranda today, talking about how a President John McCain would do on judicial nominations. Some of you may recall that Manny played a big role as a Senate aide, and thereafter, on the judges issue. Recently, he's been working for the State Department in Iraq...

Weekend Open Thread

Posted on January 05, 2008
Patterico has written a good review of the recent autobiography by Justice Thomas. A former deputy attorney general of Colorado has this advice about the presidential campaign: "Back whomever you like until the Republicans choose a nominee, but if that nominee is Rudy Giuliani, back him wholeheartedly...

Is it Better for the GOP to lose in 2008?

Posted on January 04, 2008
Something to ponder for judicial conservatives: Might it better for judicial conservatives to see the Republican Party lose the 2008 Presidential elections? The argument after the break. read more

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