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Politics : The Supreme Court, All Right or All Wrong? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (281)	7/28/2005 11:59:00 AM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3029

Let confirmation of justice be swift By KEN KARLS, Bismarck In 1993, Supreme Court Justice Byron White retired and then-President Bill Clinton nominated a former head of the ACLU, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to succeed him. Justice White was a moderate conservative. Ginsburg was a liberal. Yet there were no cries of outrage that Clinton was disturbing the "balance of the court." There were no Republicans insisting that the president appoint one of their own. Instead, there was an orderly, dignified and efficient process. Hearings were quickly scheduled. Ginsburg, as was necessary to preserve her judicial independence, refused to answer questions about her personal ideology because those issues might later come before the court, but she was nevertheless confirmed by the Senate in an overwhelming 96-3 vote, only seven weeks after her nomination was announced. A year later, Stephen Breyer, another liberal, went through a similarly brief, nonconfrontational process. Now, for the first time in 11 years, there is another vacancy on the court. This time, however, it is a Republican who is in the White House. And this time the process might not be so easy. When Bill Clinton was president, Republicans did not expect him to nominate justices they agreed with. The power of nomination lies with the president, and he alone has the right to make that choice. Nor did they expect him to replace a conservative with a conservative, or a moderate with a moderate. No president has ever felt so constrained. They did expect competent, capable jurists, and when they got them, they voted for them. This is not a political campaign. We are not counting winners and losers. This is about our future. So I urge Sen. Conrad and Sen. Dorgan to put aside the partisan shots and name-calling, and give the president's nominee a serious, careful, dignified examination. Our nation deserves no less. bismarcktribune.com