Judging Leahy
The stall on Bush’s judicial nominees.

October 17, 2001 9:00 a.m.

n Tuesday morning, a handful of reporters made their way past the scene-of-the-crime tape closing off sections of the Hart Senate Office Building's first floor to meet with Sen. Orrin Hatch about what would be the biggest fight in town, if not for the high-stakes battle going on elsewhere. The statistics Sen. Hatch shared about judicial confirmations make a convincing case that Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy is engaging in an unprecedented stall that Hatch cites as responsible for "an astronomical vacancy rate on the federal bench."

If it weren't for his "that was then" partisan flexibility, Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who is assisting with the stall, would be agreeing with Hatch. Last year, when there were 76 vacancies on the federal bench, Daschle complained that the federal courts were unable to do their crucial work. The Leahy blockade has left 108 judicial vacancies.

Under both Democratic and Republican Senates, with a single exception (a Clinton nominee judged "not qualified" by the ABA), the judicial nominees of President Bush's predecessors, when nominated before Labor Day, all were confirmed by the end of that year. Under Chairman Leahy, only eight of President Bush's 44 judicial nominees have made it to the Senate floor for approval. So, in contrast with his predecessors, whose judicial nominations enjoyed confirmation rates ranging from 93 percent to 100 percent, President Bush currently has an 18 percent approval rate for his nominees.

If the president weren't otherwise fully engaged, Sen. Leahy would likely be called on to explain why he is blocking nominees who have earned the highest ratings from his pet ABA, and who enjoy bipartisan support from their home-state senators. Leahy's weak hand was revealed when every Republican senator was willing to block approval of the foreign-operations appropriations bill to protest his indefensible stall.

A city as sensitive to whether politicians are exploiting America's war on terrorism to advance partisan goals as it is to white powdery substances, should be making a simple request of Sen. Leahy — just treat President Bush's judicial nominees like your Republican predecessor treated President Clinton's.