ConfirmThem

Do you really think that now that White has been confirmed, Bush still may not put her on the Sixth Circuit? What is he going to do, refuse to sign her commission?

Although I am no fan of White, I think the Kethledge/Murphy/White deal made the best of a bad situation.

With the deal, there are now 9 conservative judges on the Sixth Circuit and 7 liberal ones. If the Dems in Congress add two more judgeships to that circuit (as seems likely, either this year or next), and Obama gets to appoint those nominees, then the court will be evenly split 9-9.

Without the deal, Levin and Stabenow would never have allowed either Kethledge or Murphy to be confirmed and the tally on the Sixth Circuit would remain 8-6. Then Obama next year would get to nominate not 2, but 4 judges to the Sixth Circuit - skewing it toward the liberals 8-10.

Also, as I have said before, I don't think you will see Glen Conrad obstructed by the Dems. They will use his nomination to distract the Senate Republicans in July and make sure that the Republicans don't get too much traction with the public on their complaints about Keisler, Robert Conrad and Matthews:

"Obstruction? What obstruction? We just had a hearing on a circuit court nominee and plan to vote on him by the end of the month."

Expect Glen Conrad to get confirmed in late July or early August.

BTW, where were all the SJC Republican senators in the White debate today? Only Specter spoke. Where was McConnell? Where were Hatch, Grassley, Kyl, Sessions, Graham, Cornyn, Brownback and Coburn? This would've been a perfect opportunity to speak out against Dem obstruction on judges. Rather, those Republican senators decided to remain silent. That isn't a good sign for a real move by McConnell to shut down the Senate in July to get Keisler, R. Conrad and Matthews confirmed.

Good points, BoBo. And why did Hatch and Sessions vote for White??

For the gun case? Or will it be Wed.? I tend to lean toward the view put forward by a poster who thought it would be the only case announced on Thur. as a reward to Scalia for his perseverance over the years.

Hatch said during the SJC business meeting that voted White out of committee that he planned to vote for her confirmation because he believed that the president deserves deference in his judicial nominations.

This sounds a little disingenuous to me. I think he voted for her more likely because, as the Republican SJC chairman during the Clinton years, he was the one primarily responsible for keeping her nomination in limbo for four years. I think he wants everyone to believe that he didn't do it for partisan reasons, and actually he is a very fair, even-handed politician who doesn't bear a grudge.

Such a reputation may get him some political mileage from the Dems next year if and when Obama starts making his own judicial nominations. I think Hatch relishes the stories about how he is responsible for getting Breyer confirmed to a circuit court during the waning days of Carter's administration and about how he is also responsible for the Clinton nomination of RBG to the Supreme Court.

I have no idea, however, about why Sessions voted for White.

It looks like Wednesday (tomorrow) and Thursday will be the last two days of this term. There are still TEN decisions to be released. From my observations, I would say that the court never releases more than 5-6 decisions any particular day. For that reason alone, I think that there will have to be other decisions released on the same day as Heller.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1457187~Senate_approves_Michigan_judicial_nomi...

"White has served on the Michigan Court of Appeals since 1993 and previously served as a judge on the Wayne County Circuit Court for a decade. Messages were left with White's court chambers Tuesday.

Kethledge is a partner at Bush, Seyferth, Kethledge and Paige in Troy. He served as a Senate judiciary counsel to Abraham from 1995-1997 and was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Kethledge said he was "humbled and grateful to the president and I'm grateful to my senators for their support." He said his law partners have "been selfless friends in supporting me 100 percent in this."

Murphy became Detroit's top federal prosecutor in 2005 after serving as an attorney for General Motors Corp. for five years. He was a Justice Department lawyer from 1987 to 1992 and an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit from 1992 to 2000.

Murphy said he was "deeply appreciative of the president's confidence in me and especially humbled that Senators Levin and Stabenow would introduce us the way that they did. It's just a remarkable honor for me and my family.""

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/METRO/8062404...

"Ending a bitter partisan feud that dates back to 1997, the U.S. Senate took less than two hours Tuesday night to confirm a controversial Michigan judge to sit on the federal appeals court that handles cases for the Midwest.

The final vote to give Helene White, a Michigan state appeals court judge, the lifetime appointment to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was 63-32.

In urging his colleagues to support for White, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., described White's experience in getting on the federal bench as "surely one of the longest judicial nomination sagas in U.S. history."

White became a symbol of the angry battle between Democrats and Republicans over the federal judiciary, with each party at times accusing the other of trying to pack the courts to direct rulings to their liking.

But despite Tuesday's unexpectedly quick handling on the Senate floor of White's nomination -- first proposed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1997, blocked by Republicans and then re-submitted by President Bush in April -- two other Michigan nominees to federal courts were approved by a simple voice vote.

Those nominees -- Bush's choices in exchange for his support of White -- were Troy attorney Raymond Kethledge to fill the second vacancy on the Sixth Circuit, and Stephen Murphy, a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District and former General Motors Corp. attorney, to the sit on the Eastern District Court of Michigan.

The three judges were a package deal worked out between the White House and Michigan's Democratic senators, Levin and Debbie Stabenow.

Stabenow, in an understatement, said of White, "It's been a very long process.""

I'm sure they did it because they felt like it was a good deal to end the acrimony over the sixth circuit.

I have no idea if a similar deal could be worked out in the 4th or if its just time to play hardball.

As for the Supreme Court docket on Wednesday / Thursday, I'm hoping for 5 decisions on Wednesday and only two on Thursday:

Scalia announcing a 6-3 decision in Heller and Stevens announcing his last opinion on SCOTUS as well as his retirement (hey I can dream).

It's difficult to see how the minority Senate GOP can play "hardball" at this more than late stage on 4th Circuit nominations. They have almost no power to set or even influence the Senate agenda on judicial nominations.

The essential problem for Senate Republicans (now and always): You can't play hardball if you don't have any balls.

Well said.

Seeing this on MSNBC.

5-4 vote, SCOTUS strikes the law down. Says you can't prescribe the death penalty if the crimes doesn't result, or isn't intended to result, in death. Kennedy wrote the decision, Alito the dissent.

Exxon
Giles
Kennedy
Plains commerece

That leaves three decisions including Heller for tomorrow.

I agree about the lack of balls. It would be nice if someone would grow a set.

Scalia handed out an opinion today in a confrontation clause case. Does this mean it's unlikely he will deliver the majority opinion in the gun case? If so, it looks like the preening pony, Kennedy, will write a concurring opinion which mutes a total victory in Heller. Hell, he might even decide to side with the liberals.

Folks, I know there isn't much love for McCain, but the stakes are huge this fall. I know McCain has run the worst campaign in modern history, but we need him to win in order to get one more justice on the Court. Kennedy is a lost cause and could well end up considered more liberal than O'Connor. We can't depend on him for anything. If we stay home, get use to a lot of 5-4 rulings with conservatives coming out on the wrong side.

Worse than Walter "I'm going to raise your taxes and my VP's husband is a tax-cheat, and by the way did I mention I'm going to raise your taxes" Mondale?

Worse than Albert "I don't know if I'm an earth-tone guy or a belligerent guy or a guy that wears too much make-up but I'm certainly not going to take any credit for eight years of prosperty (although I'll take credit for everything else)" Gore?

Worse than John "I'm reporting for duty even though everyone I served with hates me because I slandered them and I voted for it before I voted against and what the heck why not go wind-surfing" Kerry?

McCain's not exactly lighting it up out there, but let's have a little perspective before we bust out the "worst campaign ever" superlatives.

Mose, the Mondale campaign is certainly ripe for ridicule. But the other two men you mention won a combined 517 electoral votes and over 110 million popular votes. One of them even won the popular vote in his election. Surely their campaigns must have done something right.

Bobo, #1, maybe there's a way to have concerns or objections to the White nomination, without being "bitter" about it?

courtwatcher - When you are looking at whether a candidate ran a quality campaign or not, the key isn't whether they performed OK in absolute terms, but rather whether the conduct of the campaign helped or hindered the candidate's ultimate result. Clinton in 1992 is a great example. He not only overcame all his personal peccadilloes and a President that had just won a war, but he won by making the economy the central issue even though the economy wasn't doing that poorly. Now THAT is making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Gore, on the other hand, did just the opposite. He managed to lose despite the fact that he had served in an administration that had presided over the longest and most significant period of peace-time economic expansion this country has ever known. Gore's terrible debate performances, his bizarre misstatements and the fact that he basically came across as a robot allowed him to fumble away what should have been a sure thing. That's a bad campaign.

I think the jury is out on the McCain campaign - not great so far, but still plenty of time left on the clock. Given the political conditions, I'm not sure he could pull it out regardless of what he does, but I try to stay optimistic.

Anyway, it's a very interesting topic, but getting pretty far removed from judges.

I'm sure that clinging to guns and religion will bring you some comfort. With any luck, it will be even easier to cling to guns after Heller gets handed down. Woo-Ha!