ConfirmThem

Courtesy of How Appealing,

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/02/va-bar-association-recommends-...

"Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner Patricia Millett, who co-chairs the firm’s Supreme Court practice, is among the group of five Virginia residents recommended by the Virginia Bar Association to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

The association recommended Millett along with state Sen. John Edwards (D-Roanoke), Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan, University of Virginia Law School professor James Ryan, and Hunton & Williams partner John Thomas, a former Virginia Supreme Court justice. The names were submitted this week to Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb."

Now we lose control of this COA. What do we know about these recommendations.

Only the first reap of the bitter harvest from the failures of the previous eight years regarding the Appeals Courts.

I would guess that none of those five prospective nominees approaches either Duncan Getchell or Donald Lemons in terms of what "conservatives" supposedly want in a federal appellate judge.

Both men were pre-approved by VA's sitting senators at the times their names were forwarded to the WH, either would've been confirmed easily, and both were instantly dismissed from consideration, just because no one in Karl's cool kids club had thought of them first.

Gonna be a LONG four years once Obama turns any attention towards the Judiciary, and I bet Ruthie's illness got a few wheels turning.

STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SCALIA, J., joined.

Michael Daly Hawkins, a Clinton appointee on the 9th COA, has announced that he's taking senior status, effective 2/12/2010 (on his 65th birthday). That's a long time from now!

Hawkins is from AZ. Obviously, Kyl and McCain will have a lot of say over who Obama ends up nominating to replace Hawkins.

This is one of the few Clinton COA appointees who has taken senior status (or announced an intention to take senior status) thus far. Obviously, there will be more.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/32772-1.html

"Senate Republicans called on President Barack Obama Monday to renominate a handful of former President George W. Bush’s judicial nominations and to continue the long-standing practice of consulting with home-state Senators before tapping candidates for district and circuit court positions."

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-urges-obama-to-think-bipartisan-...

"Senate Republicans penned a letter to President Obama on Monday urging him to eschew the "needlessly acrimonious" judicial nomination process and embrace bipartisanship as he fills the bench.

Noting that President George W. Bush elevated Judge Barrington Parker — who had previously been appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Bill Clinton — to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and citing the appointment of Judge Roger Gregory, another earlier Clinton appointee, to the Fourth Circuit, the senators called on Obama to act similarly.

"Because the last Congress sadly set the modern record for the fewest circuit court confirmations in a Presidents [sic] final Congress, there are plenty of well-qualified nominees with bipartisan support from whom to choose," said the letter.

Obama was also urged to recognize the "shared constitutional responsibility" of judicial appointments and consult with the Senate on nominations.

"Regretfully, if we are not consulted on, and approve of, a nominee from our states, the Republican Conference will be unable to support moving forward on that nominee," the letter stated. "Despite press reports that the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee now may be considering changing the Committee's practice of observing senatorial courtesy, we, as a Conference, expect it to be observed, even-handedly and regardless of party affiliation. And we will act to preserve this principle and the rights of our colleagues if it is not."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) urged Obama in a letter last month to renominate three Bush nominees — judges Peter Keisler, Glen Conrad and Paul Diamond — whose appointments stalled in the Senate. In Monday's letter, the Senate Republicans noted the nominees' bipartisan support and offered the three judges as examples of how Obama could 'change the tone in Washington.'"

http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODMzMDJhNDJjYTE1ODdjNWNlMjNmYWM1...

"A letter to President Obama signed by all Senate Republicans proposes two steps that Obama should take to make the judicial-appointments process less acrimonious and more bipartisan. (The letter is available on the Judicial Confirmation Network’s website, along with a statement by JCN counsel (and Bench Memos contributor) Wendy Long praising the Republican senators’ “show of strength and resolve on the matter of judges”.)

The first proposed step is for Obama to renominate to the federal appellate courts one or more of the Bush nominees who were stalled in the last Congress. Noting that “there are plenty of well-qualified nominees with bipartisan support from whom to choose”, the Republican senators’ letter gives as its lead example D.C. Circuit nominee Peter Keisler. As the letter points out, such bipartisan renominations would follow the lead of President George W. Bush, who renominated Clinton recess appointee Roger Gregory (to the Fourth Circuit) and elevated Clinton appointee Barrington Parker (to the Second Circuit).

The second step that Republican senators propose is for Obama to consult closely with home-state senators on nominees in their states. What is most noteworthy here is how Republican senators are responding to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy’s reported threat to trample their “blue slip” privilege—the means by which they exercise real clout over home-state nominees. The letter makes clear that all Republican senators expect the committee’s blue-slip policy “to be observed, even-handedly and regardless of party affiliation” and that Republican senators will act “as a Conference” to “preserve this principle and the rights of our colleagues if it is not”. In other words, Republican senators are making clear that they will insist on, and use their collective power to demand, the same blue-slip practice that Senate Democrats exercised during the Bush years.

I’ll highlight here that I’ve criticized the Senate’s blue-slip policy (most extensively in this essay), especially as it applies to appellate judges (whose workload bears no particular connection to their supposed home state), and if I were making the rules, the blue-slip practice would be quite limited. But what Leahy seeks—a system in which Democrats have enormous blue-slip power against nominees of a Republican president but Republicans have little or none against nominees of a Democratic president—is the worst possible approach, and it’s very encouraging that all Republican senators are standing together to make sure that won’t happen".

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19526.html

"President Barack Obama should fill vacant spots on the federal bench with former President Bush’s judicial nominees to help avoid another huge fight over the judiciary, all 41 Senate Republicans said Monday.

In a letter to the White House, the Republican senators said Obama would “change the tone in Washington” if he were to renominate Bush nominees like Peter Keisler, Glen Conrad and Paul Diamond. And they requested that Obama respect the Senate’s constitutional role in reviewing judicial nominees by seeking their consultation about potential nominees from their respective states.

“Regretfully, if we are not consulted on, and approve of, a nominee from our states, the Republican Conference will be unable to support moving forward on that nominee,” the letter warns. “And we will act to preserve this principle and the rights of our colleagues if it is not.”

In other words, Republicans are threatening a filibuster of judges if they're not happy.

The letter is an opening salvo in what could be a partisan battle in the Obama years. Democrats regularly complained that Bush nominated conservative judges without consulting them, then the Republican-controlled Senate ran roughshod over them even if the nominees lacked support from homestate senators. Obama’s lawyer Gregory Craig has begun his outreach with senators about potential nominees, and several Republicans have warned Obama that the quickest way to squander bipartisan goodwill is to nominate far-left judges."

http://townhall.com/Columnists/KenKlukowski/2009/03/03/the_right_to_a_go...

"There's much commentary about civil rights and government power. But rights are only secure if a good judge is presiding over your case when you try to assert those rights. The process of confirming judges has been broken for years, and now Senate Republicans are asking for some bipartisan treatment to try to right the ship of America's judiciary. President Obama should compel the Senate to keep the promise that Senator Harry Reid broke to his colleagues and the former president over the past two years about judges."