One might suspect that presidential nominations of judges to lifetime appointments to the federal courts were a bunch of incompetent, rabble-rousing, political hatchet people unversed in the rule of law.
What other reason can one assess to the backlog of nominees sitting on their hands and dangling in limbo before the Senate performs its constitutional duty of advise and consent. How about political qualifications to suit an agenda at the expense of legal acumen and integrity. That’s how I see it and the process is rather revolting.
We’re not just talking the Republican blockade in this session of Congress tweaking its nose at the Obama administration in which the Senate confirmed just five nominees while 103 vacancies remain since before the August recess. And those were the ones making it through the Senate Judiciary for a full vote by the Senate.
The Democrats played the same game during the Bush administration. It was so raunchy that seven Democrats and seven Republicans formed a coalition and threatened a nuclear option, whatever that entailed since it never happened.
All it takes is one anonymous Senator to put a “hold” on some person fitting himself for a black robe and he is sentenced to indefinite yo-yoing on a long bungee cord from a tall bridge.
Whatever happened to the days when the American Bar Association recommendations meant something? I mean, who can you trust? Apparently we put our trust in political ax grinders.
What we have is an independent branch of government stacked with gambles from both political parties that those appointed will not turn against their political agendas. God forgive a perceived conservative Souter turned liberal or a known liberal in a William Douglas turning socialist.
We no longer presume circuit, appeals and Supreme Court justices rule by the facts in cases before them, but by political standards judged as liberal or conservative courts.
These political litmus tests are producing bland, scared nominees who in some cases plan a path out of law school on how to walk up the ladder to gain favor for judicial appointments. That is the impression I gathered from the resumes of John Roberts and Elena Kagan. Great legal minds are cast to the graveyard.
What we have is a judiciary branch that doesn’t digest legal pig iron but a group of black robes that reflect the political bias of current and past Senates and U.S. presidents.
If you don’t believe my analysis, take a look at the most current problem in filling court vacancies by President Obama. It doesn’t matter if it is Obama, Bush I and II, Clinton, Reagan, Ford, Johnson, Carter, Eisenhower or FDR. Or the next and future presidents.
It is a political one-upsmanship power play game played by our politicians at the expense of an independent judiciary.
(Photo courtesy telegraph.co.uk)
Cross posted on The Remmers Report
Comments are welcome. Link to my blogsite or go to my email address at [email protected] . Remmers’ varied career spans 26 years in the newspaper business. Read a more thorough resume on The Remmers Report.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.