GOP senators perfect art of stalling
By: Nan Aron
Politico.com
February 2, 2010
The breathless reporting of the State of the Union “confrontation” between President Barack Obama and the conservative members of the Supreme Court in the wake of the Citizens United v. FEC ruling has overshadowed a much more serious issue — congressional Republicans’ systematic blocking of the president’s judicial nominees.
While ultraconservatives regularly decry “judicial activism,” this criticism rings false. In fact, conservatives have long had the goal of packing the federal bench with ideological appointees. For years, Republicans have fought to place their own judicial activists in powerful judicial positions. The presence of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court represents the zenith of this strategy; and, as Citizens United proved, these justices’ activism can have a powerful, lasting legacy.
Senate Democrats could have predicted this situation had they given Roberts’s and Alito’s long records of conservative activism greater weight than the judges’ polished, noncommittal confirmation hearing performances.
Democrats evinced astonishment at the Citizens United ruling, characterizing the conservative court majority — and Justices Roberts and Alito in particular — as politically driven and activist. But this should be no surprise to anyone who had carefully examined either judge’s record. In both cases, previous rulings signaled ideologically driven, “activist” tendencies.
(More here.)
Politico.com
February 2, 2010
The breathless reporting of the State of the Union “confrontation” between President Barack Obama and the conservative members of the Supreme Court in the wake of the Citizens United v. FEC ruling has overshadowed a much more serious issue — congressional Republicans’ systematic blocking of the president’s judicial nominees.
While ultraconservatives regularly decry “judicial activism,” this criticism rings false. In fact, conservatives have long had the goal of packing the federal bench with ideological appointees. For years, Republicans have fought to place their own judicial activists in powerful judicial positions. The presence of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court represents the zenith of this strategy; and, as Citizens United proved, these justices’ activism can have a powerful, lasting legacy.
Senate Democrats could have predicted this situation had they given Roberts’s and Alito’s long records of conservative activism greater weight than the judges’ polished, noncommittal confirmation hearing performances.
Democrats evinced astonishment at the Citizens United ruling, characterizing the conservative court majority — and Justices Roberts and Alito in particular — as politically driven and activist. But this should be no surprise to anyone who had carefully examined either judge’s record. In both cases, previous rulings signaled ideologically driven, “activist” tendencies.
(More here.)
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