Reaction Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
To The President’s Remarks
On The Federal Judiciary
Fri., May 9, 2003

Leahy Hits White House Bid
To Undermine Independence
Of The Senate And The Judiciary

[Following is the reaction of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to the remarks made by President Bush in an event Friday morning at the White House:]

The Republican myth of a ‘judicial crisis’ is punctured by the facts, which show the lowest judicial vacancy rate in 13 years -- lower than the national jobless rate of 6 percent.

Court-packing by presidents of either party is harmful, and I have spoken out often about the need to preserve the independence of our federal judiciary.  The world’s emerging democracies envy the judicial independence in the American system, and we should make every effort to defend it, not to undermine it, as the escalating tactics of this administration would do.  Just last month President Bush turned a deaf ear when Chief Justice Rehnquist warned against the assault on the independence of the judiciary when sentencing ‘reforms’ were tacked onto a popular bill without hearings or careful consideration.

The White House says it opposes judicial activism, but the President sends the Senate activist nominees.  The White House itself pushes results-oriented changes in the rules of the Senate, which is part of a separate branch of government.  This White House is not satisfied with controlling two branches of government.  They also want to pack the independent federal courts, even if it means undermining the independence of the Senate itself.  They already have convinced Senate Republicans to bend and even break the Judiciary Committee’s rules in the handling of judicial nominees.  Now they want to change the rules of the Senate itself in a raw bid for unitary government, run out of the White House.  We should not and we cannot let the Senate or the federal judiciary become mere arms of any political party or any president.

The President’s charges about obstruction would be easier to understand if the numbers themselves didn’t disprove them.  The President and some Republicans in the Senate seem to be suffering from confirmation amnesia.  The Democratic-led Senate confirmed 100 of his judicial nominees, acting far faster than Republicans did with President Clinton’s nominees.  We have confirmed another 24 this year for a total so far of 124, the lowest judicial vacancy rate in 13 years.  The vacancy rate on the federal bench today is 5.4 percent, which is lower than the national jobless rate of 6 percent.  Unemployment has soared, the deficit has soared, crime is on the rise for the first time in a decade — about the only thing that has gone down significantly over the last two years is federal judicial vacancies.  Yet the White House complains that it has not been able to bully the Senate into rubber-stamping every one of the White House’s ideological choices.  Democratic senators have cooperated to improve the process so that it has worked much more smoothly for President Bush’s nominees than Republicans allowed for President Clinton’s nominees.

The fact is that 124 have been confirmed, and two have been held back.  You would not know that by listening to the President’s remarks.

Democrats held hearings even on controversial nominations, and we have cooperated this year in bringing many controversial nominations to the floor for votes.  When Republicans controlled the Senate during the last Democratic administration, they blocked more than 60 judicial nominees.  And they were blocked not with cloture votes in the light of day, but sometimes by a single, anonymous Republican objection.  And yes, there were also Republican filibusters of President Clinton’s nominees.  Yesterday, in fact, was the third anniversary of the cloture votes that ended Republicans’ double-filibuster of two of President Clinton’s circuit court nominees, Richard Paez and Marsha Berzon.

The answer for handling the remaining controversial nominees is not reckless rhetoric or undermining the Senate’s independence by changing its rules.  The answer has to start with the President, where the process begins.  Despite his earlier promises, the President has been a divider and not a uniter in choosing many of his nominees, who would roll back the hard-won rights of workers, women, minorities and consumers, and who would side with the big polluters over communities when it comes to clean air and water.  Several of his choices have divided the American people, and they have divided the Senate.  We have drawn a line with a few of his most extreme choices.  Drawing that line has been the responsible response to this president’s divisive nominations for lifetime positions on the federal courts.

The answer is for him to work with the Senate, as earlier presidents have done.  The process starts with the President, and the buck – and the blame-laying – also should stop with the President.

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Contact: David Carle, 202-224-3693