Dems to Filibuster 2 Bush Judicial Picks
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats say they will maintain simultaneous filibusters of two of President Bush's judicial nominations, a pledge sure to escalate the partisan battle over the federal judiciary.
Senate Republicans on Thursday will try to muster at least 60 votes to force the confirmation of one of the two: Texas judge Priscilla Owen - a home-state favorite of the president's who has been nominated for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Democrats, however, say they have more than enough votes to keep Owen bottlenecked up in the Senate the way they've kept Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada from becoming a federal appellate judge over the last three months.
Owen's ``record is so egregious that we have no choice but to filibuster,'' Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said Tuesday.
Democrats have called Owen, who sits on the Texas Supreme Court, an anti-abortion, pro-business judicial activist whose opinions and rulings are overly influenced by her personal beliefs.
It takes 40 senators to uphold a filibuster, and ``there's more than enough votes,'' said Daschle, who leads a 48-senator Democratic caucus.
``I'm not going to give up,'' warned Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who has led several attempts to get Estrada past the Democratic blockade.
Democrats have successfully filibustered Estrada for three months to keep him off the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Republicans have lost four attempts to break the Estrada filibuster.
Democrats, who want more information about Estrada, have asked him to answer more questions and have urged the White House to release memos Estrada wrote while working for the Justice Department.
The Bush administration has refused to release those memos. Republicans have accused Democrats of treating Estrada unfairly because he is a conservative Hispanic.
Bush noted Tuesday that half the 10 judicial nominees he submitted to the Senate in 2001 - including Estrada and Owen - still have not had votes.
``The delays in the Senate confirmation process deter good people from seeking to serve on the bench and create a vacancy crisis in the federal courts that harms the American people,'' Bush said.
Democrats said they are willing to confirm consensus candidates like U.S. District Judge Edward Prado, who also wants a seat on the 5th Circuit. Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt to immediately confirm Prado, a Hispanic federal judge from Texas, instead of debating Owen.
``We'll get to Prado in due course,'' said Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
The Senate confirmed Jeff Sutton, a former Ohio solicitor general, for a seat on the U.S. Appeals Court despite protests from disabled persons who say Sutton worked to restrict their rights.
Sutton was approved on a 52-41 vote for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which handles appeals from Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan.
Democratic senators have criticized Sutton for attempts to limit federal civil rights protections and to gut or weaken protections for state employees with disabilities and older workers.
While Democrats had enough votes to filibuster Sutton, ``we want to be selective, we want to be careful,'' Daschle said. ``I don't want to abuse the practice of filibustering.''
People who question Sutton ``will no doubt attest to Mr. Sutton's keen intellect, his even temperament and the depth of his legal knowledge,'' added Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio.
The Columbus, Ohio, lawyer argued successfully in a Supreme Court case in 2000 that Congress exceeded its authority by permitting state workers to sue their states under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
04/30/03 10:56
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