Ending the Filibuster Travesty

No more.

In today's political charade of a confirmation process, "well qualified" judicial candidates are often treated as malicious villains if they do not meet the shadowy new doctrine established by Senate Democrats who are slaves to the abortion-rights community.

For the past two years – two years! – two of President Bush's judicial nominees, Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen, have been maligned and smeared by Senate Democrats who have ignored their superb and celebrated legal careers.

The reason? Neither nominee has endorsed the ambiguous "right to privacy" that abortion supporters declare is to be found in the U.S. Constitution.

And therein lies the major problem. Liberals believe that the Constitution is a "living document" that can be altered to correspond to their ever-shifting "morals."

Thomas Jipping, senior fellow in legal studies at Concerned Women for America, the nation's largest public policy women's organization, said recently, "The only thing that matters to the left is whether judicial nominees can be counted on to deliver a political agenda."

But, as President Bush pointed out, it is Justices Estrada and Owen who represent the mainstream of American law and American values.

What to Do?

The Virginia Beach-based American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, released a report this week indicating that a simple majority in the U.S. Senate – 51 senators – could act immediately to end filibusters in the Senate over the two nominees now hanging in the balance.

The ACLJ has presented its findings to members of the U.S. Senate, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. (The ACLJ report is posted at www.aclj.org.)

"The simple majority principle presents the clearest and best resolution of this conflict involving judicial nominees," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ. "It is clear through our research and legal analysis that a simple majority of the Senate may determine the rules by which it proceeds and may bring an immediate end to the filibusters. While the Constitution gives great latitude to Congress itself on how to operate, there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent a simple majority of senators to act to change their rules and bring an end to the obstructionist tactics being used against nominees."

Mr. Sekulow added, "It is our hope that a simple majority in the Senate assert its authority and act to bring an end to a destructive strategy aimed at the confirmation process – a process that is clearly broken."

The ACLJ believes the "clearest and best resolution of the present conflict" is the simple majority option. The ACLJ determined that there is existing legal and Senate precedence that would permit the majority (51 senators) to change Rule XXII, bring an end to the filibusters, and call for a vote by the full Senate on Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen.

"There is no easy solution to resolving this current conflict," said Mr. Sekulow. "However, there is significant reason to believe that if a willing majority acted immediately to resolve this crisis, those efforts would succeed and survive any legal challenges that may be brought."

The Republican leadership also has a plan of action called a "nuclear option." As it stands now, 60 votes are needed to break a filibuster. The GOP resolution, co-sponsored by several senators, would require only 60 votes in the first attempt at evoking cloture. In each attempt after that, the vote requirement would drop by three until it reaches a simple majority (51 votes).

Paul Weyrich, founder and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation, said this plan would be aggressively denounced by Democrats and the so-called mainstream print media, but that's not as big an issue as it once was.

As Mr. Weyrich notes:

"Fewer and fewer people rely on newspapers and the traditional print media for their information. Most people get their news about politics and government from the broadcast media. Conservatives dominate talk radio and the Fox News Channel is the fastest growing channel in news/talk television. Then, there is the Internet. All the big web pages are conservative. The liberal media is in a state of significant decline. [Therefore], the Republican senators can get by with doing what Senator Talent suggests and survive politically."

So it appears there are solutions to the dishonest filibuster that is now taking place. Let us pray that courageous Republicans will be able to stir support for ending the politically motivated roadblocks that have been set up to prevent highly qualified individuals from serving in the federal courts.

Meanwhile, you can help. Please call the Capitol Switchboard to contact your senators (202-224-3121) and courteously request that they call for an immediate vote on Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen and vote for their confirmations.