ConfirmThem

I think it is likely that Southwick and Elrod will get confirmed before Kethledge and Murphy. I wonder why Noel Hillman of New Jersey (Third Circuit) and Robert Conrad of North Carolina (Fourth Circuit) haven't been nominated yet.

I think so too BoBo. as for Hillman, Conrad, or any others, Alexham or Andrew one reported several weeks ago that the WH was getting ready to make 7 nominations. We've gotten 3 with the renominations of Kethledge and Murphy, and now Elrod, so there should be 4 more coming. (I'm not sure why they don't do it all at once, but they did the same with the promised bunch last year too, so who knows.) Hillman and Conrad, as well as a 9th (CA) and 10th (NM) circuit seat. the US Courts site still doesn't even list the Kelly seat under future vacancies, so I'd imagine we won't get that one until its official. they really should get a nominee for the 4th out already though.

http://www.acsblog.org/judicial-nominations-recent-fifth-circuit-nominee...

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/29/muzzling-free-speech-to-protect-evan...

I think Elrod might be more difficult to confirm than I originally thought, but I think if Hutchinson and Cornyn really press her, she shouldn't have too hard of a time. The key is how forcefully Cornyn forces her in committee. The key is getting her a hearing and committee vote.

which even one commenter in the thinkprogress thread thinks wasn't completely unreasonable even though overturned is the only thing they've got, yeah, I think she'll be confirmed without too much trouble.

Kennedy and Schumer and Leahy will of course harp over it and look like total asses doing so, as usual, but I don't think it is fatal.

Prior restraints are sometimes okay if the goal is to protect a fair trial. See the following case involving Manuel Noriega:

http://supreme.justia.com/us/498/976/

when the nominees are under than I am. Sigh. Oh well, its always good to see another nominee.

I'm assuming that since we're talking Texas here that Bush knows what he's doing.

Signature disclaimer: I'm not currently paid by any campaign, but I am available. Current preferences for President: 1) F.Thompson; 2) Romney; 3) Guiliani; 4) McCain; 5) Gingrich

now that my favorite baseball and hockey players are getting younger than me.

I think that it was a rather boneheaded decision on Elrod's part, and I do find it to be a tiny bit disturbing since that's half of the universe of law that I know her on (I found another case where the Texas Supreme Court reversed her.)

But you can find small instances about this on any judge. Jennifer Elrod should make it onto the court pretty easily. The Bush Administration must think that she's Supreme Court quality to pass over Rosenthal for her. Which - if you remember Jan Crawford Greenberg detailing that liberals sought to sink the nominations of all minority conservative jurists to the circuit courts - kind of cuts against the easy confirmation argument. So, I guess we'll see what happens. Kay Baily Hutchison and John Cornyn may have to play good cop/bad cop. Most of the liberals like Kay, and John can be the enforcer on the judiciary committee.

I can't help but think that Lee Rosenthal would have been the easiest to confirm for this seat because she is so immensely well respected by the entire legal community. I forget about what happened with all of the Enron litigation, but I think that Judge Harmon handled all of it. Having anything to do with Enron is the only thing that I could imagine getting so twisted against her as to impede Judge Rosenthal's confirmation to the 5th Circuit.

could Bush nominate her to SCOTUS straight form the district court? even if she were nominated now, she wouldn't be confirmed before a SCOTUS vacancy if it occurred at the end of the term.

it would of course be silly to say there's much of any chance of that being the plan, but she is a woman, and a Texan, and being a trial judge is a form of diversity of sorts too, given that I don't think any of the current justices have that type of experience. gender, regional, and a bit of experience diversity all in one. I think the pickings are still pretty slim on the COA for female nominees to SCOTUS (E. Clement being the most likely, IMO, with perhaps slim chances for Sykes or Batchelder, but apart from that they're either questionable in their judicial philosophy or confirmability), so someone from outside that pool still seems reasonably likely. possibly a state supreme court or federal district court judge, a prime litigator like Mahoney, someone in the AG or SG's office (maybe even a state AG or SG) or a law professor.

"even if she were nominated FOR THE 5TH CIRCUIT now..."

I think Rosenthal could be nominated to SCOTUS straight from the district court - she's that good. I'd support it wholeheartedly.

My sense is Bush does know what he's doing with Elrod. She appears to be quite conservative, but someone who may sail in under the radar (mixing metaphors, sorry) to confirmation.

The prior restraint decision isn't that bad. Don't jump on the thinkprogress bandwagon!

If you will notice my comments from yesterday, I thought it was bad before ThinkProgress thought it was bad. :-P

I should disclose that my family owns newspapers, so I probably find it more annoying that most of the other commentators on here, but I still think that it was a boneheaded decision that was correctly overruled. I'm surprised that someone with her brackground would have had such an instinct, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that there was probably more to it than I know.

I think that it is troubling, but not disqualifying. I just hope that she proves to be a better adovocate of the First Amendment's free speech and freedom of the press rights.

Lee Rosenthal was born in 1952 so she should be 55 this year. I guess that means that if she made it to the Supreme Court, she'd have to be directly elevated sometime soon.

Her academic credentials are impeccable and her reputation is unassailable. If we needed a quick confirmation at the end of the Bush Administration, she is one of the very few district court judges who could easily make the jump and have the easiest time with confirmation.

I would still have preferred to see her with SOME Court of Appeals experience before a possible elevation to SCOTUS, but if the next one has to be a woman and we can't get Janice Rogers Brown, Lee Rosenthal should be seriously considered. I would place her as the second highest prospect out of the 5th Circuit behind Edith Jones.

Here's the White House's preliminary bio of her:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/judicialnominees/elrod.html

From the White House site,

"As a judge, [Elrod] has presided over more than 125 jury and non-jury trials. She has been reversed in whole or in part five times, and two of the reversals were to allow the parties to settle."

I think this nugget was put in her White House resume in order to counteract any negative publicity concerning the prior restraint case in which she was reversed. I don't know the average number of reversals for a Texas state district judge, but her percentage of affirmed cases sounds impressive.

is can she be confirmed? (Matthew re: Rosenthal)

released ratings for district nominees Van Bokkelen (NDIN), Sullivan (SDNY), and DeGiusti (WDOK) all unanimously WQ. nominees submitted 3/19 have been added to the list but not yet rated. the Michigan nominees already had ratings so they should be rerated pretty quickly.

h/t: ATL

a quoted lawyer loves her, thinks she'd be an "absolute centrist" (and though it may be the reporter's editorializing as its not in quotes, said lawyer apparently thinks the same thing about the judge she's replacing, Patrick Higginbotham, so that's probably not something to worry about).

http://www.theconglomerate.org/2007/03/jennifer_walker.html

There is a refreshingly informal picture in this piece.

Yes, the article referenced on ATL is encouraging. It involves a Texas plaintiff's atty who loves Elrod's abilities despite the fact she rarely favors his clients. That's good enough for me!

He also calls her a "centrist" and "moderating force" like Judge Higginbotham. Higginbotham was neither; rather he was a pretty conservative judge who almost was picked by Reagan for SCOTUS.

rate / re-rate the 6th Circuit nominees?

I believe the Senate comes back from recess on the 10th, and I'd not be surprised to see the ratings out within a week (that would make it almost a month since their renomination). I don't know that there would be any harm in the President going ahead and recess appointing the three district nominees so that they can go ahead and fill those emergency vacancies, and the Senate could then approve them at their leisure. I guess the only harm would be if he were to recess appoint any further judges later - the Dems would use appearances (and an un/critical media) to claim he's doing it too much, even though the WDMI judges shouldn't count toward that total, having already been agreed to.

his 57th, and 2nd on the bench. may he be blessed with many, many more!