Republican
National Hispanic Assembly
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A majority in the Senate (55 to 44) supported taking a
vote on the nomination of Miguel Estrada on a cloture vote on Thursday. But
to stop a filibuster you need a super-majority of 60 votes.
Below are some the reactions to this vote. A cartoon, a
statement by the President stating that "I will stand by Miguel
Estrada's side until he is sworn in as a judge", an article by
the Wall Street Journal explaining that this is not business as usual and a
press release by the Washington State Republican Party.
President Disappointed by Vote to Continue Filibuster on Judicial Nominee
March 6, 2003 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT Miguel Estrada is a well-qualified nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals who has been waiting nearly two years for an up or down vote in the United States Senate. The decision today by 44 Senators to continue to filibuster and block a vote on this nomination is a disgrace. The Senate has a responsibility to exercise its constitutional advice and consent function and hold an up or down vote on a judicial nominee within a reasonable time. Some Senators who once insisted that every appeals court nominee deserves a timely vote have now abandoned that principle for partisan politics. Their tactics are an injustice and unfair to the good man I have nominated, and unfaithful to the Senate's own obligations. These Senators are holding Miguel Estrada to a double standard. I will stand by Miguel Estrada's side until he is sworn in as a judge. I call on the Senate Democratic leadership to stop playing politics, and permit a vote on Miguel Estrada's nomination. Let each Senator vote as he or she thinks best, but give the man a vote. ###
REVIEW & OUTLOOK The Estrada Precedent The vote will signal an extraordinary new standard for confirming judges--not a simple majority of 51 votes but a super-majority of 60. That's the number required to shut off debate and move to a floor vote on the nomination. Mr. Estrada, who has the support of 55 Senators, will thus be prevented from getting the confirmation vote to which he's entitled under 200 years of Senate practice under the advise and consent clause of the U.S. Constitution. In defending this power play, Democrats and their acolytes are peddling the idea that this is merely tit-for-tat politics, that everybody does it. That is false, so completely so that those who assert it are either lying or too lazy to check. In the history of the Senate, the 60-vote standard has never been used to block a nominee to a federal appellate court. That's the definitive word from a 2002 report by Richard Beth of the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service on the history of "cloture," the Senate's term for closing debate. Mr. Beth says cloture entered the Senate rulebook in 1917, when it was limited to legislative matters. In 1949 the rules changed and cloture could be used to end debate on nominations. Since 1968 cloture has been used to limit debate on nominations a total of 30 times, including 13 judicial nominations. (See the list below.) Cloture, by the way, is almost always invoked for procedural reasons and not to end filibusters, which are extremely rare for Presidential appointees. But here's the essential point: All but one of the 13 judicial nominees subjected to a cloture vote were confirmed. Most of them sit on the federal bench even now. The sole exception was Abe Fortas, nominated in 1968 for Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Fortas faced charges of corruption, and LBJ withdrew his nomination.
The Republicans' cloture decision on Mr. Estrada suggests they may finally be waking up to the stakes here. So far they've let the Democrats get away with a gentleman's filibuster--no sleeping bags, no multi-hour, bladder-busting orations. Their excuse is that all 51 GOP Senators would have to be on hand or else even a single Democrat could shut things down for lack of a "quorum." But who said Senate work was all cakes and fund-raisers? Without the spectacle of bleary-eyed Senators staggering to the floor in the wee hours, the press corps (much less the public preoccupied with war) won't pay much attention. At least the cloture strategy will force Democrats to go on the record denying Mr. Estrada a vote, especially if they keep doing it again and again through November 2004. Four Democrats already support him: John Breaux of Louisiana, Zell Miller of Georgia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Bill Nelson of Florida. Republicans have hope for 10 more: Bob Graham of Florida, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Tom Carper of Delaware. Also on the list is the venerable Bob Byrd (West Virginia), who claims respect for Senate traditions and is so far the only Democrat who has taken up the White House offer to meet with Mr. Estrada to discuss any concerns. The hard truth, however, is that few if any of these Democrats will move unless they fear they will pay a political price for their obstructionism. Tom Daschle and Hillary Rodham Clinton are making the Estrada precedent an issue of party loyalty. This is all about playing to their left-wing base and denying to Senate Republicans the fruits of their hard-fought election victory. They'd better start fighting like those are the stakes, or this will only be the first of many humiliations.
Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
WASHINGTON STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY Chris Vance, Chairman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Chris Vance March 6, 2003 (206) 575-2900
Murray, Cantwell vote to continue Estrada filibuster Candlelight vigils in Seattle, Yakima today will rally for Bush nominee
Seattle, WA – In a vote today in the U.S. Senate, Democrats – including Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell – voted against moving forward on the confirmation of Miguel Estrada, President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. If confirmed, Estrada would be the first Latino to serve on the D.C. appeals court.
For a month, Democrats have been using a Senate blocking technique known as the “filibuster” to prevent a full Senate vote on Estrada. Today’s vote was an attempt by Republicans to break the Democratic filibuster. Sixty votes would have been required to move forward on a confirmation vote for Estrada, but only 55 senators – including four Democrats – voted in favor.
State GOP chairman Chris Vance called Murray and Cantwell’s treatment of Estrada “mindless partisanship.” He said the two senators are playing politics with judicial nominations.
“Miguel Estrada is very well-qualified and has received bipartisan support, including from former Clinton administration officials,” said Vance. “Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell aren’t really opposing Mr. Estrada because they think he’s not fit to serve on the bench – they just want to score a political hit against President Bush. And they and their fellow Democrats are using Miguel Estrada as a pawn in their petty little game.”
Vance said Democrats are trying to justify their opposition by claiming that Estrada refuses to answer certain questions and hand over legal documents from when Estrada worked for the Solicitor General. But previous judicial nominees have not been required to provide the kind of information Democrats are now demanding from Estrada.
“The Democrats are grasping at straws here, looking for any excuse to shut out Miguel Estrada, and Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are going right along with the Democrat leadership,” said Vance. “It’s a shame, because Mr. Estrada is just the kind of person we need on the bench. He is extremely smart, he has worked his way up from being an immigrant to a nationally respected attorney, and he would bring a diversity of background and life experience to the federal court.”
More than 70 newspapers across the country have editorialized against the Democrats’ filibuster. Today from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM the Washington Republican National Hispanic Assembly will hold candlelight vigils in front of the Seattle and Yakima federal buildings, where Murray and Cantwell have district offices, to rally in support of Estrada.
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