Political Fights Keep Judges off the Bench
Dec. 3, 2007 -- Opportunity 08 is an ABC News project with the Brookings Institution to help presidential candidates and the public focus on critical issues facing the nation. This week, Opportunity 08 takes a closer look at judicial policy and how the next president should address contention and inefficiencies in the federal court nomination process.
Things are usually quiet around the Thanksgiving holiday on Capitol Hill, but this year Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid kept the Senate in session by scheduling meetings in a pro forma session once every three days. Some of the sessions lasted less than a minute, so why bother to convene at all?
Reid effectively blocked President Bush's constitutional ability to fill federal vacancies during a recess – a power that allows the President to circumvent the confirmation process for controversial nominees. In this case, there was a rumor that Bush would appoint surgeon general nominee James W. Holsinger Jr. during the two-week break. In the past, Bush used the power to install nominees whose confirmation Senate Democrats had blocked, including the 2004 appointments of judges William Pryor and Charles Pickering to the U.S. courts of appeals.
Reid's move signals an atmosphere of heightened politicization that, according to one policy expert, threatens the impartiality and independence of the judiciary as a whole.
"As controversy over federal courts rises, the process of selecting and confirming judges for the appellate and district courts has become prolonged, often mean-spirited, and detrimental to those courts, whose collective impact on American society is at least as great as that of the Supreme Court," says Russell Wheeler, former deputy director of the Federal Judicial Center.
Commissions and Timetables could Help Process
To de-escalate this conflict and restore what has historically been a much more efficient process Wheeler proposes the creation of bipartisan commissions composed of respected leaders of the bar, law school faculties, citizens' groups, and the business and labor communities. These commissions would recruit, evaluate and eventually recommend nominees.
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