12/11/2001

In a speech last week, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo did what you would expect a Democratic Party consigliere to do: He gave advice. The interesting part is that he gave it to a Republican – President George W. Bush.

Mr. Cuomo told a gathering of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund that he thinks that President Bush should nominate a Hispanic to the Supreme Court, thus breaking a barrier that should have been broken long ago.

That is good advice. In fact, one wonders if Mr. Cuomo gave similar counsel to President Bill Clinton, who had two opportunities to appoint a Hispanic to the Supreme Court.

In any case, President Bush does not need coaching. He has repeatedly expressed his intention of putting a qualified Hispanic judge on the court, and we trust that he will follow through on that promise.

If Mr. Cuomo really wants to see a Hispanic on the Supreme Court, he should lecture fellow Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are blocking President Bush's attempt to put a qualified Hispanic judge in the pipeline. Of the 11 individuals whom Mr. Bush nominated to the federal court of appeals, eight have been denied hearings. Among the hostages is Miguel Estrada, a 40-year-old Honduran immigrant who rode the American dream all the way to Harvard Law School, and who is now Mr. Bush's choice to preside on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Senate Democrats have confirmed just 28 percent of President Bush's judicial nominees in his first year in office, compared to the 57 percent of nominees confirmed in the first year of the Clinton presidency. That is a shameful record.

Miguel Estrada and the other Bush nominees deserve better. They deserve hearings.