ERLC reiterates call for end to judicial filibusters

By Tom Strode - Jul 15, 2005 -

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other organizations have reiterated their opposition to the Senate’s use of the filibuster to block confirmation votes on President Bush’s selections for the federal judiciary.

In a June 30 letter and news conference, the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters urged Republican senators to halt the “obstruction” and called specifically for the confirmation of federal judge Henry Saad to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The latest action followed a May letter also asking GOP senators to vote to end the use of the delaying tactic on judicial nominees.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had scheduled a vote in late May to change a rule that, had it been successful, would have required only a majority to break a filibuster on judicial nominees. Ending a filibuster currently requires 60 votes. The night before that vote, seven Republicans and seven Democrats announced an agreement that prevented a vote on a rule change but also provided for the confirmation of some of the filibustered appeals court nominees.

In June, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution calling for the Senate to confirm judicial nominees by the traditional majority vote and for Presidents to nominate judges who “interpret rather than make law.” The resolution also commended Frist and encouraged Southern Baptists to urge their senators to halt the “obstruction of judicial nominees.”

William Myers and Saad, the two appellate nominees left out of the agreement crafted by the 14 senators, “have been held hostage by a minority that refuses to accept that their vision for America’s future is out of step with the vision of the majority of Americans and their elected leadership,” the ERLC’s Duke said at the Washington news conference. The developments regarding Myers and Saad demonstrate “we have already stumbled over the corpse of the short-lived, poorly conceived, disingenuous compromise,” Duke said.

Bush nominated Myers to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Among other signers to the latest letter calling for an end to judicial filibusters were representatives of Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Congress of Racial Equality, Liberty Counsel, Coral Ridge Ministries, American Family Association and Family Research Council.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Citizenship, National