Bush’s Judicial Nominations are Right Wing Freaks

• For What Reason is the Corporate Media Acting Like a Struggle is Going on? - Of the 214 nominees sent to the Senate for a vote during Bush's first term, Democrats blocked only 10. In other words,  95% of Bush’s nominees have been approved.

President Bush has re-nominated seven candidates for the federal appeals courts. Each was blocked by Senate Democrats during his first term. He also sent back to the Senate five other nominees for the federal appeals courts whose confirmations were slowed because of Democratic concerns regarding their legal backgrounds. Bush has accused Democrats of blocking votes on so many of his nominations that they have created “judicial emergencies.” In reality, Bush has had more judicial nominees approved than in the first terms of Presidents Clinton and Reagan, and the administration of his father. Of the 214 nominees sent to the Senate for a vote during his first term, Democrats blocked only ten, using the filibuster. As such, 95 percent of Bush’s nominees have been approved. By contrast, from 1995 to 2000, while Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate blocked 35% of Clinton’s circuit court nominees. Bush has repeatedly said that all of his nominees are well qualified to serve on the nation’s courts. He has said, “They are of the highest caliber. These are superb nominees.” And he has stressed that “they represent mainstream values.” However, a review of his nominees indicates that most of them could hardly be construed as holding mainstream legal and public policy ideas. Many, in fact, have extremely conservative views. Perhaps the most conservative nominee is California Justice Janice R. Brown. She opposes Social Security, calling it part of the government’s “socialist revolution.” As a strong opponent of state and local authority, she characterized a city ordinance requiring some housing to be made available to the poor, elderly, and disabled as the theft of private property. She also indicated that racially discriminatory speech in the workplace is protected under the First Amendment right to free speech, even when it meets the legal definition of harassment. [more]