Bypassing Congress, Bush Installs Judge on Federal Appeals Court
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:17 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush installed Charles Pickering on a federal appeals court Friday, bypassing Democrats who had stalled his nomination for more than two years, sources said.
Bush installed Pickering by a recess appointment, which avoids the confirmation process. Such appointments are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005.
Pickering, a federal trial judge who Bush nominated for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, has been waiting for a confirmation vote in the Senate.
"I'm grateful to the president for his continued confidence and support," Pickering told The Associated Press from his home in Mississippi. "I look forward to serving on the 5th Circuit."
Democrats have accused Pickering of supporting segregation as a young man, and pushing anti-abortion and anti-voting rights views as a state lawmaker.
They also have said they wouldn't be able to trust him to keep his conservative opinions out of his work on the federal appeals court.
The 5th Circuit handles appeals from Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, and the federal judges on that circuit have been trailblazers on desegregation and voting rights in the past.
Pushing for Pickering's confirmation last year, Bush said, "He is a good, fair-minded man, and the treatment he has received by a handful of senators is a disgrace. He has wide bipartisan support from those who know him best." |
