Last week's confirmation hearings must have seemed an all-too-familiar nightmare to William Rehnquist, President Reagan's nominee to be Chief Justice, who first went through this particular mill in 1971 when he was initially nominated to the Supreme Court. Even with a redoubtable conservative ally, North Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond, at the helm of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the rumpled and bemused Rehnquist suffered some turbulent moments at the hands of liberal Democratic committee members like Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden. Although the heated hearings were not expected to hurt Rehnquist's chances of confirmation as the 16th Chief Justice of the U.S. when the full Senate votes in September, they raised some sticky questions about his sensitivity to racial issues.



Most damaging were the charges that in the early '60s Rehnquist intimidated black and Hispanic voters at polling places in Phoenix, where he was then a local Republican activist, by questioning their ability to read. Until 1964, it was legal in Arizona to challenge a person's right to vote on the grounds of illiteracy. In a 1971 letter to the Senate after his confirmation hearings, Rehnquist stated categorically that he had not "personally engaged in challenging the credentials of any voter." This time around he was more circumspect. First he claimed that his function on Election Day was to provide legal advice to Republicans assigned the task of challenging voters' credentials. Then, peppering his testimony with "I don't recall"s, he said he did not believe he had ever challenged any voter.



A far less benevolent picture of his activities emerged from the testimony of four new witnesses. Psychology Professor Sydney Smith, a Democratic poll watcher at the time, said that in the '60s he saw Rehnquist go up to two black men at the polls and say to them, "You're not able to read, are you? You have no business being here." San Francisco Attorney James Brosnahan, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Phoenix in 1962, specifically contradicted Rehnquist's sworn testimony. Brosnahan recalled how he was summoned by panicky voters and officials to a precinct where Rehnquist was a challenger. Brosnahan said he assumed that it was Rehnquist's "blanket" challenges of black and Hispanic voters that had led to the tense situation though he had not personally seen Rehnquist challenge anyone. Nonetheless, he testified that Rehnquist's conduct "was designed to reduce the number of black and Hispanic voters by confrontation and intimidation." But Vincent Maggiore, then chairman of the Phoenix-area Democratic Party, said he had never heard any negative reports about Rehnquist's Election Day activities. "All of these things," he said, "would have come through me."

Meanwhile there were the broadcast networks to flay-- four of them, now that PBS, which unlike the others was relatively free of the need to placate corporate sponsors, had matured into a fearless news powerhouse. The White House's Office of Telecommunications Policy was crafting a public-broadcasting funding bill. OTP general counsel Antonin Scalia had drafted a series of memos on how the Corporation for Public Broadcasting might be made a more pliable vassal of the White House. "The best possibility for White House influence is through the Presidential appointees to the Board of Directors," he wrote; the best way to shed the influence of "the liberal Establishment of the Northeast" would be to strengthen local stations at the expense of the national organization.

At a time when nearly one out of every eight Federal judgeships was vacant, the Senate last year adjourned without voting on 19 judicial nominations favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee. Attorney General Holder had warned that, "The federal judicial system that has been a rightful source of pride for the United States-- the system on which we all depend for a prompt and fair hearing of our cases when we need to call on the law-- is stressed to the breaking point." The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, a group of career Federal prosecutors, wrote to Senate leaders saying that, "Our federal courts cannot function effectively when judicial vacancies restrain the ability to render swift and sure justice." The Senate failed to heed these warnings.



We must do better. We can consider and confirm the President's nominations to the Federal bench in a timely manner. At the end of the 111th Congress, there were 19 judicial nominations left on the Senate's Executive Calendar awaiting a vote. These were superbly qualified nominees with a strong commitment to the rule of law and a demonstrated faithfulness to the Constitution. Fifteen of these nominees were reported with strong bipartisan support; 13 of them were reported unanimously by the Judiciary Committee. They could and should have been considered and confirmed before Congress adjourned.

You may have thought it was ironic that one of the most corrupt of Karl Rove's slimy protégés, vote cager extaordinaire , Tim Griffin, was nominated for a House seat by the GOP and, when he won, was immediately placed by Boehner on, of all places, the Judiciary Committee! But that's exactly how the Republican Party thugs roll.The first anyone had ever heard of a racist Republican thug in Arizona named William Rehnquist was in the early 60's when he took a bow on the national stage as a bit player intimidating black and Hispanic voters at polling places in Phoenix. Twenty years later, when Reagan nominated him to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court,Magazine had the temerity to bring it up again:Rehnquist also owned a few homes that he wouldn't rent to racial minorities, specifically including "anyone of the Hebrew race." Typical of the Party of Bigots, Haters and Hypocrites. And I remember a fascinating passage in Nixonland by Rick Perlstein about another esteemed right-wing hack who made it onto the Supreme Court. In a discussion of how Nixon used dirty tricks or dubious legality as part of his reelection master plan he mentions a low grade administration lawyer:Reagan appointed him too (in 1986, when Rehnquist became Chief Justice). He faced no tough questioning and was unanimously confirmed by the worthless House of Lords. Speaking of which... Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee mentioned in a press release that "[t]oday, the Judiciary Committee holds its first confirmation hearing of the 112th Congress, welcoming three nominees for lifetime appointments to the Federal bench... qualified nominees were first nominated by President Obama last year and have been re-nominated." He continued:President Obama, for all his other faults, has worked with both parties to come up with credible and competent nominees that are all backed across party lines-- before being subjected to vicious partisan filibusters with no substance and for no other reason beyond naked obstructionism. No one can possibly deny he's met GOP senators far more than halfway. In the last Congress,home-state Republican and Democratic senators supportedjudicial nominee. Still, GOP Senate bullying tactics denied floor votes to 19 nominees whom the Judiciary Committee approved, mostly unanimously!Today's Senate Judiciary Committee Executive Business meeting agenda lists 11 renominees who were approved on voice votes in Committee in the lame duck and were held over last week in Committee: James E. Graves, Jr., to be US Circuit Judge for the 5th CircuitAmy Totenberg, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of GeorgiaJames E. Boasberg, to be US District Judge for the District of ColumbiaAmy B. Jackson, to be US District Judge for the District of ColumbiaPaul K. Holmes, III, to be US District Judge for the Western District of ArkansasAnthony J. Battaglia, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of CaliforniaEdward Davila, to be US District Judge for the northern District of CaliforniaDiana Saldana, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of TexasMax O. Cogburn, Jr., to be US District Judge for the Western District of North CarolinaMarco A. Hernandez, to be US District Judge for the District of OregonSteve Jones, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of GeorgiaNone are controversial. And after all the partisan foot-dragging and nastiness, all were confirmed in an en banc voice vote this morning without dissent. America is fortunate that none are like Rehnquist or Scalia.

Labels: Obama's judicial nominees, obstructionist Republicans, Scalia, Supreme Court, Tim Griffin