Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Judicial nominations, etc. Remember a few weeks ago when Senator Hatch explained that his view of Senatorial consideration of federal judicial nominees is that the President should ALWAYS get his way (assuming that the nominee is competent and unbiased), with the tiny proviso (inserted in order to explain his vote against a Clinton nominee) that if the home-State Senators are against a nominee then the Senate should reject him or her? Here's my earlier post, calling that a peculiar view and one that no one should feel compelled to share. Now I see, thanks to Howard Bashman's latest roundup of pending appellate nominations, that (in connection with a Ninth Circuit vacancy) we may have a chance to see whether Senator Hatch even believes in his stated view -- or whether perhaps there is a proviso to the proviso, to the effect that the "home-State Senator's prerogative" only applies when the home-State Senator is a Republican.

This is one of several recent news items that have been foreshadowed by Ignatz. Everyone in Alabama is starting to recognize that the State may well have to pay a million or so in attorneys' fees to the plaintiffs in the Ten Commandments case; and you heard it here first. Supreme Court observers are starting to see that Gonzales, not Estrada, is at the head of the line for Supreme Court vacancies; and I pointed out weeks ago that many aspects of the confirmation battles were a setup for that outcome. (I do recognize I'm not the only person who saw this coming!).

Clever me.

posted by sam 10:41 AM 0 comments

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