Yesterday, President Bush announced two new nominations to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: E. Duncan Getchell, Jr. of Virginia and Steve A. Matthews of South Carolina. Meanwhile, independent reports were released about two pending nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: former Mississippi state judge Leslie Southwick and Texas state trial judge Jennifer Walker Elrod.
Getchell, one of the new Fourth Circuit nominees, graduated from Duke Law School in 1974 and has been with the law firm of McQuire Woods since 1977. Matthews graduated from Yale Law School in 1980 and served at the Department of Justice from 1985-1988, after which he joined South Carolina-based Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A.
Both Senators from Virginia, John Warner (R-VA) and James Webb (D-VA), collaborated on compiling a list of consensus nominees. Senator Warner has told the White House that he “steadfastly remain[s] committed to the recommendations stated in my joint letter with Senator Webb,” who yesterday afternoon stated that "the recommendations that Senator Warner and I made have been ignored. The White House cannot expect to complain about the confirmation" of nominees rejected by the state's Senate delegation.
Judge Southwick's pending nomination to the Fifth Circuit has encountered criticism from a variety of observers. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has argued that "Judge Southwick's answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to excuse his disappointing record on cases involving consumers, employees, racial minorities, women and gays and lesbians. . . . Judge Southwick could not find one case in which he sided with a civil rights plaintiff in a non-unanimous verdict." Concerned about a case in which Judge Southwick denied a biological mother custody of her 8-year-old child partly on account of her sexual orientation, Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said, "It would be unconscionable for Congress to confirm Leslie Southwick to a lifetime seat on the federal bench. The fact that this nomination has gotten this far is an outrage, given Southwick's troubling civil rights record." Finally, Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice recently wrote about concerns with Southwick's nomination extending beyond the two particular cases for which he has been most widely criticized.
Yesterday, Jennifer Walker Elrod's nomination was considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which took no action. A Texas state trial judge (with a docket that only covers civil matters) since 2002, Judge Elrod has never issued a judicial opinion. The Alliance for Justice has suggested that Judge Elrod "provided no information on which the Committee could effectively evaluate her," and "refused to answer specific written questions posed to her by senators regarding her views on fundamental constitutional law issues." Noting in particular that she has never written a judicial opinion, the Alliance concludes that "[s]uch limited experience does not befit the important position to which she is nominated—a lifetime seat on one of the highest courts in the country."
For more see our Earthjustice Press Release at:
http://www.judgingtheenvironment.org/press/pr/page.jsp?itemID=30884962
Bush Rejects Bi-partisan Senate Effort in Order to Reignite Judicial Nomination Wars
4th Circuit nominee was omitted from list jointly provided by Virginia Senators
September 7, 2007
Contact:
Glenn Sugameli, Earthjustice, (202) 667-4500
Washington, DC-- Yesterday, President Bush rejected a bipartisan list of five names that Virginia Senators Jim Webb (D) and John Warner (R) recommended for two 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacancies from Virginia. Instead, he nominated E. Duncan Getchell, Jr., who was one of many lawyers whom the Senators jointly interviewed and omitted from their list of five prospective nominees.
"There no longer can be any doubt that President Bush wants to pick unnecessary fights on judicial nominations, rather than to fill vacancies and confirm judges," said Glenn Sugameli, Senior Legislative Counsel with Earthjustice. "Unfortunately, President Bush continues to reject advice from Republican and Democratic Senators on mainstream, confirmable nominees, and prefers to appeal to his right-wing base by throwing gasoline on the simmering embers of the judicial nomination wars."
Sen. Warner stated that "I steadfastly remain committed to the recommendations stated in my joint letter with Senator Webb to the president, dated June 12, 2007, and I have so advised in a respectful, consistent manner in my consultations with the White House senior staff." Sen. Webb said in a statement, "Today, despite our good faith, bipartisan effort to accommodate the President, the recommendations that Senator Warner and I made have been ignored. The White House talks about the spirit of bipartisanship, lamenting congressional obstructionism. The White House cannot expect to complain about the confirmation of federal judges when they proceed to act in this manner."
"Every Senator who has called for more bipartisanship on judicial nominations should be asked about President Bush's rejection of a careful, widely-praised bipartisan Senate effort to fill an appeals court vacancy," Sugameli said. "President Bush has refused to nominate anyone to appellate court seats in other circuits despite recommendations from Republican Senators, including Arlen Specter (R-PA) and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). He has repeatedly ignored the Senate's constitutional advise and consent role in nominating federal judges, resulting in appeals court vacancies in appeals court seats based in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia that have gone unfilled for years."
Sugameli added that, "A Maryland-based 4th Circuit seat has remained unfilled for almost seven years because Claude Allen, the only nominee President Bush submitted, did not live in the state (he later pled guilty to misdemeanor theft). When President Bush has submitted nominees, they have all too often 'seemed deliberately provocative,' as a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial described Jim Haynes, a prior nominee for a 4th Circuit Virginia-based seat who withdrew because of bipartisan Senate opposition."
Yesterday, President Bush also nominated Steve A. Matthews for a South Carolina-based 4th Circuit seat. Matthews serves as a Member and the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Landmark Legal Foundation, which nominated Rush Limbaugh for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Recently, President Bush withdrew a prospective nominee for a New Jersey-based Third Circuit seat who had been approved by both home-state senators. He gave the senators no input on his actual nominee, and only informed them after the selection was made.
"There really is a better way," Sugameli said. "When the Bush administration has honored the Senate's constitutional 'advise and consent' role, more than 250 of his judicial nominees have been confirmed."
For more see our Earthjustice Press Release at:
http://www.judgingtheenvironment.org/press/pr/page.jsp?itemID=30884962
Bush Rejects Bi-partisan Senate Effort in Order to Reignite Judicial Nomination Wars
4th Circuit nominee was omitted from list jointly provided by Virginia Senators
September 7, 2007
Contact:
Glenn Sugameli, Earthjustice, (202) 667-4500
Washington, DC-- Yesterday, President Bush rejected a bipartisan list of five names that Virginia Senators Jim Webb (D) and John Warner (R) recommended for two 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacancies from Virginia. Instead, he nominated E. Duncan Getchell, Jr., who was one of many lawyers whom the Senators jointly interviewed and omitted from their list of five prospective nominees.
"There no longer can be any doubt that President Bush wants to pick unnecessary fights on judicial nominations, rather than to fill vacancies and confirm judges," said Glenn Sugameli, Senior Legislative Counsel with Earthjustice. "Unfortunately, President Bush continues to reject advice from Republican and Democratic Senators on mainstream, confirmable nominees, and prefers to appeal to his right-wing base by throwing gasoline on the simmering embers of the judicial nomination wars."
Sen. Warner stated that "I steadfastly remain committed to the recommendations stated in my joint letter with Senator Webb to the president, dated June 12, 2007, and I have so advised in a respectful, consistent manner in my consultations with the White House senior staff." Sen. Webb said in a statement, "Today, despite our good faith, bipartisan effort to accommodate the President, the recommendations that Senator Warner and I made have been ignored. The White House talks about the spirit of bipartisanship, lamenting congressional obstructionism. The White House cannot expect to complain about the confirmation of federal judges when they proceed to act in this manner."
"Every Senator who has called for more bipartisanship on judicial nominations should be asked about President Bush's rejection of a careful, widely-praised bipartisan Senate effort to fill an appeals court vacancy," Sugameli said. "President Bush has refused to nominate anyone to appellate court seats in other circuits despite recommendations from Republican Senators, including Arlen Specter (R-PA) and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). He has repeatedly ignored the Senate's constitutional advise and consent role in nominating federal judges, resulting in appeals court vacancies in appeals court seats based in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia that have gone unfilled for years."
Sugameli added that, "A Maryland-based 4th Circuit seat has remained unfilled for almost seven years because Claude Allen, the only nominee President Bush submitted, did not live in the state (he later pled guilty to misdemeanor theft). When President Bush has submitted nominees, they have all too often 'seemed deliberately provocative,' as a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial described Jim Haynes, a prior nominee for a 4th Circuit Virginia-based seat who withdrew because of bipartisan Senate opposition."
Yesterday, President Bush also nominated Steve A. Matthews for a South Carolina-based 4th Circuit seat. Matthews serves as a Member and the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Landmark Legal Foundation, which nominated Rush Limbaugh for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Recently, President Bush withdrew a prospective nominee for a New Jersey-based Third Circuit seat who had been approved by both home-state senators. He gave the senators no input on his actual nominee, and only informed them after the selection was made.
"There really is a better way," Sugameli said. "When the Bush administration has honored the Senate's constitutional 'advise and consent' role, more than 250 of his judicial nominees have been confirmed."