ABA Retains Little Objectivity in Nomination Process

The nation’s largest lawyers’ organization, the American Bar Association, has played a prominent role in the confirmation of federal judges for more than a half century. Since 1952, the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary has examined and rated the professional qualifications of potential federal judges before the U.S. Senate considers them for confirmation...[more]

Conduct Unbecoming a United States Senator

More than forty years ago, it was simply "routine" when President John F. Kennedy recess appointed 25 judges to the federal bench in the span of a little more than a year. Amongst those judicial recess appointees was Griffin B. Bell, a Georgian, who was selected to serve as a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which was then responsible for cases in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas...[more]

White House, Daschle Strike ‘Deal’ on Some Judicial Confirmations

After nearly two months of negotiation, the White House and Senate Democrats reached an agreement this week that will enable some of President Bush’s judicial nominees to get up or down votes on the Senate floor...[more]

Democrat Memogate: Standoff at the Civil Rights Commission

The United States Commission on Civil Rights did not meet on May 17, the date marking the 50^th Anniversary of the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that mandated integration of America’s public schools...[more]

Is the ‘Constitutional Option’ Viable to Break Partisan Filibusters Against Judicial Nominees?

Never before in our nation’s history has a judicial nomination to a federal appeals court been defeated by a filibuster, a parliamentary tactic that requires 60 affirmative votes rather than a simple majority for confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Never, that is, until now...[more]

Democrat Memogate: Quiet Waters Run Quietly

There will be times like this; there are for any scandal. Nothing seems to be happening. Those who believe that investigations must move forward with all due speed and diligence become frustrated, not a unique emotion even for routine expectations of government, but palpable when wrongs must be righted...[more]

The Kerry-Kennedy Court: Tribe and Tested

Nine seats have been occupied for nearly a decade now. But sometime after January 20th, several seats on the Supreme Court will surely become vacant. The list of possible retirements that could occur during the next four years is long by Supreme Court standards, and includes a majority of the current Court. Based on age alone, there are four likely departures, all of whom are in their 70s or 80s: Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 79, and Justices John Paul Stevens, 84, Sandra Day O’Connor, 74, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 71. Add to that list Justice Antonin Scalia, who many commentators believe is frustrated with the cloistered nature of Supreme Court life, and the distinct possibility exists that five justices will hang up their robes during the next presidential term...[more]

Democrat Memogate: Chasing the Red Herring

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have gotten their way. On Monday, the Justice Department announced a criminal investigation into the downloading and leaking of Democrat memos that discuss the strategy and tactics of opposing President Bush’s nominees to the federal bench...[more]

Center Files Senate Ethics Complaint Against Senator Kennedy and His Former Aides Johnson and Barnes

The Center for Individual Freedom today filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics against Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and two of his former aides, Olati Johnson and Melody Barnes...[more]

Democrat Memogate: As the Wagons Circle

On April 19, Jonathan Groner published a brief piece in Legal Times. The lead sentence read: "The Virginia State Bar has rejected an ethics complaint filed last December against Elaine Jones, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund."...[more]

Democrat Memogate: In the Eye of the Scandal

After months of frustration that neither the press nor the government are doing their respective jobs with regard to the smoldering U.S. Senate scandal that has come to be called Memogate, the Center for Individual Freedom provided some missing journalism...[more]

CFIF Files Ethics Complaint Against Olati Johnson

The Center for Individual Freedom today filed an ethics complaint with the First Departmental Disciplinary Committee in New York against Olati Johnson, the former aide to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) who wrote the April 17, 2002, memo urging the Senator to delay consideration of a judicial nominee in order to manipulate and influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases then pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit...[more]

CFIF Urges ‘Kerry-Kennedy’ Presidential Campaign to Come Clean on Plot to Manipulate Michigan Affirmative Action Case

In a letter to presidential candidate John Kerry (linked below), the Center for Individual Freedom today urged him to immediately come clean on Mary Beth Cahill’s (his campaign manager) involvement in the plot to manipulate the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases then pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit...[more]

Letter to Kerry calls for acknowledgment of possible criminal action by his campaign manager

In a letter to presidential candidate John Kerry, the Center for Individual Freedom asks that Kerry condemn his campaign manager's roll in memogate...[more]

Former NAACP Attorney Olati Johnson
Wrote Controversial Staff Memo to Senator Kennedy

The Center for Individual Freedom has learned the identities of two former aides to U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) who, in a memo dated April 17, 2002, recommended that the Senator delay confirmation proceedings of Judge Julia Smith Gibbons to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The purpose of the delay was to influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, then pending before that court...[more]

Nearly 4,000 Americans Urge Senator Kennedy to Come Clean on Memogate

The Center for Individual Freedom today delivered a petition signed by nearly 4,000 people from across the country to Senator Edward Kennedy demanding to know whether he obstructed justice in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases when they were pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit...[more]

Judge Pickering Speaks Out

As a part of their campaign to obstruct President Bush’s judicial nominees, Senate Democrats, led by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), and outside special interest groups, tried to brand Judge Charles Pickering a racist. In an extraordinary interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes broadcast March 28, Judge Pickering rebutted those charges...[more]

CFIF Unveils ‘Memogate Lineup’ Ad

The Center for Individual Freedom today unveiled the second in its series of ads on Memogate. In the ad, which features a "lineup" of Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), who are at the heart of the controversy, the Center calls on Democrats and Republicans alike to stop ignoring the content of the memos and calls for a full investigation...[more]

Democrat Memogate: Kennedy Stonewalling

On March 19, Charles Hurt of The Washington Times produced one of those enterprising news stories that restore credit to an increasingly lazy profession. Hurt asked a group of prominent law professors about the now-notorious staff memo written to Senator Ted Kennedy. That would be the memo recommending that Senator Kennedy fulfill a request from Elaine Jones of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to stall the confirmation of judges to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit until after the University of Michigan affirmative action case was decided by that court...[more]

CFIF Launches Ad Campaign Questioning Senator Kennedy on ‘Obstruction of Justice’

The Center for Individual Freedom today launched the first in a series of ads questioning U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on whether or not he "obstructed justice" in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases then-pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit...[more]

Democrat Memogate: The Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight

Just when we thought members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee — Republicans and Democrats alike — couldn’t possibly shame themselves or the Senate any more, they did. Several times. With no end in sight. Shame, as a public function, is limited by the number of people paying attention, currently few. Shame also requires susceptibility to such emotion, not currently evident in the Judiciary Committee. That’s expected through the initial stonewall phase. Media and public attention on most government scandals starts haltingly and builds slowly, as more and more dots are connected, usually by journalists with the noses of truffle pigs, also currently in short supply...[more]

Center Urges Attorney General Ashcroft to Investigate Content of Judiciary Memoranda

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Center for Individual Freedom today asked that any criminal probe into how some Judiciary Democrats’ collusion memoranda regarding judicial confirmations were obtained and "leaked" include a thorough examination of the memos’ content and a complete investigation into the unethical and potential illegal conduct they may evidence...[more]

Memogate Timeline

For several months, Senate action on President Bush’s judicial nominees has ground to a halt as the Judiciary Committee and its members have been consumed with what has become popularly known as "Memogate." The term refers to reportedly more than 4,000 memoranda to and from Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that outline troubling collusion between liberal special interest groups and Committee Democrats to obstruct the confirmation of many of the President’s judicial nominees...[more]

Center Renews Call for Immediate Investigation Into Content of Judiciary Memoranda

As Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle prepares to release the results of his investigation into how Judiciary Democrats’ memoranda were obtained and made public, the Center for Individual Freedom today renewed its calls for a full investigation into the corruption and potential criminal wrongdoing outlined in the contents of the memos...[more]

Appoint Them All, Mr. President

For three years, the President of the United States did the right thing with regard to judicial appointments. He looked at judicial vacancies throughout the federal courts, at both district and appellate levels. He found people of impressive credentials he believed would interpret the laws of the land, not make new law, and not act as entrepreneurs of radical views. He nominated them, according to constitutional procedure...[more]

Democrat Memogate: The Beginning of Political Scandal

As political scandals go, the case of the U.S. Senate Democrat memos is difficult to assess thoroughly, for the moment. The evidence is currently under lock and key by the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. That evidence consists of some three to four thousand memos from or to Democrat members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, believed to detail collusion between Democrats and leftist groups to block confirmation of many of President Bush’s judicial nominees...[more]

Center Calls for Justice Department Investigation

The Center for Individual Freedom joined over two dozen organizations this week in asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee or their staffs exchanged efforts to obstruct the confirmation of President Bush’s judicial nominees for campaign contributions and support...[more]

Black and White in the ‘Gray Lady’

It goes without saying that the mantra of The New York Times Editorial Pages is "All the Leftist Propaganda That’s Fit to Print." But sometimes the newspaper’s transparent knee-jerk liberalism shocks even us. Take, for example, the Gray Lady’s political hypocrisy when it comes to appointment of federal judges...[more]

Center Urges Senator Kennedy to 'Do the Right Thing' With Regard to Incriminating Judicial Memos

In a letter reproduced here, the Center for Individual Freedom urges Senator Kennedy to immediately release the names of all staffers named in the April 17, 2002, memorandum, including its author; disclose all information on activities and decisions resulting from the April phone call and memorandum; and recuse [himself] from all Senate deliberations and votes on judicial nominees until a full investigation, including a pending ethics complaint filed against you, is completed...[more]

Grievance Filed With Virginia State Bar Against NAACP Official

The Center for Individual Freedom today was joined by several national grassroots organizations in filing a grievance with the Virginia State Bar calling for a full investigation and for appropriate action to be taken against Elaine R. Jones, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc...[more]

Senator Kennedy and the Other N-Word

When Senator Kennedy used that other N-Word last week, he did not specify to whom he was referring. He didn’t have to. The targets of his pejorative are those nominees for the federal bench whose confirmations are being and will be blocked by Senator Kennedy and others at the behest of the organized left...[more]

As partisan animus continues to infect the judicial confirmation process in the U.S. Senate, the Center for Individual Freedom today released a judicial nominations scorecard for the first session of the 108^th Congress...[more]

Judicial Nominations Scorecard

Escalating partisan animus continues to infect the judicial confirmation process in the 108th Congress. A minority of U.S. Senators have chosen to obstruct justice and to abandon their responsibility to the American people by refusing simple up or down votes on President Bush’s nominees. Click here, to download the scorecard detailing this year's Senate votes that would have ended the partisan filibusters now blocking five of President Bush’s nominees and that has caused one to withdraw his nomination.

Filibusters and the Constitution

The current "wrangling" in the Senate over President George W. Bush’s judicial nominations "has constitutional dimensions, raising important questions about the Senate’s role in the judicial confirmation process under the Advice and Consent Clause," according to a new white paper authored by four attorneys, including the Center for Individual Freedom’s Assistant General Counsel, Reid Alan Cox, and published by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies...[more]

Boxer Breaks a Promise: The Expected Filibuster of 9th Circuit Nominee Carolyn Kuhl Perpetuates a Partisan Temper Tantrum

By Congressman Darrell Issa: Earlier this year, during the confirmation process of Federal Appeals Court nominee Miguel Estrada, Sen. Barbara Boxer made a promise. Boxer said that while she supported the filibuster of Miguel Estrada she would not use the filibuster to block the President's nominees if they would simply answer the Senate's questions...[more]

Wanted: A Mute to Serve on the D.C. Circuit

Looking for a new job? Perhaps you should watch the classified advertisements for an employment opportunity to serve as judge on one of our Nation’s most influential courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. After all, the classifieds appear to be the only place left where President Bush can search for a nominee who meets the criteria of those Senators filibustering multiple judicial nominations. Candidates who have any personal opinions espoused in a speech or included in an article simply need not apply...[more]

The ‘Nuclear Option’

It’s been more than a quarter century since a simple majority of the U.S. Senate has employed a parliamentary procedure ominously known as the "nuclear option" to effect a change in the body’s Standing Rules. Back then, in 1975, it was a bare Democratic majority that mustered the will to force a change in Rule XXII, the "cloture rule," decreasing the number of votes required to break a filibuster from two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes, to the current level of three-fifths of the body, or 60 votes...[more]

Setting the Record Straight on Judge Pickering

By Senator Orrin G. Hatch: In 1962, the Governor of Mississippi violated an order of the United States Supreme Court and personally barred James Meredith, a black student, from enrolling at the University of Mississippi.  It took hundreds of United States Marshals and National Guard soldiers, acting under the direction of President Kennedy, to ensure his enrollment.  Wide-scale rioting ensued.  Dozens of U.S. Marshals were shot; hundreds of people were injured; two men were killed.  This is the Mississippi that still existed when Judge Charles Pickering sent his young children to newly integrated public schools in Jones County, Mississippi, in the 1960s...[more]

Center Denounces Democrat Obstructionism as Setting a Dangerous Precedent and Making a Mockery of Judicial Confirmation Proces

As a result of Miguel Estrada’s decision to withdraw his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Center for Individual Freedom today lambasted Senate Democrats for their obstructionist tactics which have eroded the principle of separation of powers outlined in the U.S. Constitution and torpedoed the independence of our federal judiciary...[more]

By Thomas L. Jipping: In the days prior to adjourning for its August 2003 recess, the U.S. Senate voted against ending debate on three nominations to the U.S. Courts of Appeal. Some say these filibusters, and the others said to be coming in the months ahead, are part of an unprecedented Democrat-led obstruction campaign. But Democrats say Republicans have done the same thing in the past. These competing claims, and the certainty that efforts to end judicial nomination filibusters will continue when the Senate returns in September, make this a good time objectively to examine the historical record.

To read more, visit the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation.

Center Applauds Judiciary Chairman for Squashing Sour Grapes Politics on Sixth Circuit Judicial Nominees

The Center for Individual Freedom today applauded Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for holding a hearing on the confirmation of Henry Saad, a Michigan Court of Appeals judge who is one of President George W. Bush's nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit...[more]

Judicial Nominees: Levin, Stabenow must help end deadlock; it clogs up courts

By Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox: "He broke it." "No, she did." "But he started it." Is this the typical "conversation" I hear every night when I get home to my three youngest kids? Nope. Unfortunately, this is the essence of the debate that the U. S. Senate, including our own U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, is having over blocking a vote on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees to the federal court of appeals...[more]

The New Glass Ceiling

Stellar credentials and a "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association, its highest, following her nomination to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals should have made the road to confirmation an easy one for Judge Carolyn Kuhl...[more]

True Legal Reform Begins With Judicial Reform

Progressively, for several decades, opportunistic plaintiffs' attorneys, motivated more by personal profit than any quest for justice, have hijacked the federal courts by filing case after case in search of the next big payday.  From automobiles to fast food as their latest targets, trial lawyers are not only getting more inventive with their legal contortions, but they are also pressing more of them with unwavering relentlessness and baffling success.  Left in the wake is a judiciary stretched far beyond its limits and a legal system desperate for reform.

To read more, visit the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation.

Estrada's Answers are Consistent with Judges who Sailed through Senate Confirmation

Filibustering Senators insist that circuit court nominee Miguel Estrada is not entitled to a constitutionally mandated yea-or-nay vote by the full Senate because of a failure to "complete his job application."  Specifically, they object to Mr. Estrada's alleged "refusal" to answer questions at his Judiciary Committee hearing and the Administration's refusal to release privileged documents and memoranda produced by Mr. Estrada when he worked as the Assistant to the Solicitor General.  But as detailed in an analysis prepared by the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation, Senate Democrats have no historical support for their asserted rationale in "Borking" Mr. Estrada's confirmation.  In fact, an examination and comparison of Mr. Estrada's current confirmation proceedings with those of Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer establishes that Mr. Estrada has been as, if not more, forthright with information about himself and his views as then-Judge Breyer, who was easily confirmed by a vote of 87-9 in 1994.

To download the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation's complete analysis, click here.

Civil rights guardian, outstanding nominee

By Willie J. Huntley, Jr. (Courtesy of the Mobile Register 2003 © All rkghts reserved. Reprinted with permission.) The Washington-headquartered, liberal witch-hunt against President Bush's federal judicial nominees has targeted its next victim, and it is one of our own: Bill Pryor, the attorney general of Alabama...[more]

Meet the Press Highlights Center's Ad Against Daschle's Hypocrisy on Judicial Nominations

Displaying the Center for Individual Freedom's "Hypocrite" ad (The Washington Times, May 9, 2003), Tim Russert on this week's Meet the Press asked Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle why he was acting against his own words in leading simultaneous filibusters against circuit court nominees Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen...[more]

Fixing a Broken Confirmation Process:
Ending Permanent Judicial Nominee Filibusters

By Thomas L. Jipping, J.D. The Center for Individual Freedom joined Concerned Women for America and more than 30 other organizations in submitting this report to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights following Chairman John Cornyn's (R-TX) hearing: "Judicial Nominations, Filibusters, and the Constitution: When a Majority is Denied Its Right to Consent."

To read the report, click here

CFIF Exposes Senator Tom Daschle's Hypocrisy on Judicial Nominations

Today, the two-year anniversary of President George W. Bush‚s initial nominations to the federal circuit courts of appeal, the Center for Individual Freedom ran an ad in The Washington Times labeling Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle a hypocrite for his party‚s ongoing obstructionism against the President‚s judicial nominees. [more]

To view a copy of the Center's ad, click here.

If Our Ad Speaks for You, Please Help Us Buy More

The Center's activism for judicial reform is driven by ample evidence that liberal judicial activism is steadily eroding our constitutional foundation.

Hard-hitting ads like the one above are costly - as are litigation, grassroots efforts and research.  We are confronted by adversaries who are funded by million-dollar contributions from left-wing special interest groups and Hollywood activists, and their war chest is formidable.

We are a non-profit corporation, and our funding comes from those who share our commitment to preserving the freedoms and rights embodied in the U.S. Constitution, without which there is little meaning for democracy.

We can stop the judicial activism, end the partisan bickering and restore the constitutional integrity of the confirmation process.

But not without your help. 

Please make a generous contribution to the Center for Individual Freedom today.  To contribute to the Center, click here.  Thank you.

Extra! Extra!
U.S. Senate Confirms (One) Judicial Nominee,
Begins Filibuster Against Another and Continues Obstructionism Against Miguel Estrada

As the obstructionist filibuster against D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Miguel Estrada continues -- and another begins against Fifth Circuit nominee Priscilla Owen -- the United States Senate this week confirmed, by a vote of 52 to 41, the nomination og Jeffrey Sutton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. While Sutton's confirmation is a step in the right direction, a simple comparison of the three nominees' experience and situation further begs the question of why a majority of Senate Democrats will not allow the nominations of Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen to proceed to an up-or-down vote by the full Senate, as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution...[more]

Senate Math — 41 Is Greater Than 59!

By U.S. Senator Zell Miller: A portly British statesman once famously said that "Democracy is based on reason and fair play." But there's nothing reasonable or fair about what's been happening in the Senate recently. The filibuster against Bush-nominee Miguel Estrada is not just an expensive waste of time and taxpayer money, it's also an affront to majority rule, the principle that Democracy operates on everywhere. Everywhere, that is, but the Senate,,,[more]

CFIF Launches Ad Campaign Against Senator Mary Landrieu for Flip-Flop on Miguel Estrada

The Center has launched a Spanish radio ad campaign in Louisiana to insist that Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) keep her campaign promise to her Honduran constituents...[more]

CFIF Sr. Vice President of Legislative Affairs Jeffrey Mazzella Hosts Live Online Session on Washingtonpost.com

On March 6, the Center's Jeffrey Mazzella was the host of a Washington Post online discussion regarding the ongoing battle over the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  To read the full transcript, click here.

The Filibuster of Miguel Estrada

Miguel Estrada's American Dream did not end yesterday.  It was, however, once again stalled by 44 Democrats who refuse to end their unprecedented and unconscionable filibuster of Estrada's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...[more]

Miguel Estrada: What the Nation's Editorial Pages Are Saying

Senate Democrats continue to lead a filibuster against the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  The obstructionist maneuver is now in its third week, with no discernable end in sight. While the Senate is playing politics as usual, it is clear the American people are fed up with the obstructionism.  And since Mr. Estrada's nomination was voted out of committee on January 30, the nation's editorial pages (not traditionally bastions of "right-wing ideologue" thought) have weighed in on the battle.

To download more, click here.

Center Urges Senator Landrieu to Stand By Her Campaign Commitment On Estrada

In a letter sent to Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the Center urged that she stand by a campaign commitment she made to tens of thousands of Spanish-speaking Louisianans on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

To read the letter, click here.

The Landrieu Response

Responding to charges of flip-flopping on her support for Miguel Estrada, Senator Landrieu issued the following response.  Since it is written in political weasel speech, we have taken the liberty of interspersing some comments. To read Landrieu's response, click here.

Dear Senators, It's "Advise and Consent," Not "Obstruct and Delay"

Center Urges Unobstructed Floor Vote on Miguel Estrada. As the full Senate considers the confirmation of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Center for Individual Freedom today reminded all 100 Senators of their constitutional responsibility to the judicial confirmation process...[more]

Help End the Partisan Blockade Against President Bush's Judicial Nominees:  Liberals Target Miguel Estrada

The federal judiciary is mired in a crisis.  Dockets are overloaded and longstanding vacancies at district and circuit court levels are going unfilled...[more]

Center to Senate Judiciary Committee: Send Miguel Estrada to the Senate Floor

The Center for Individual Freedom today urged the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to send the confirmation of Miguel Estrada, one of President George W. Bush's nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, to the chamber floor for an up-or-down vote by all 100 Senators.  Estrada is slated to be the first Hispanic ever to serve on the D.C. Court of Appeals...[more]

"Beating a Dead Horse"

Chief Justice William Rehnquist kicked off the New Year with a familiar mantra, pleading with Congress to help extricate the federal judiciary from its current crisis of overcrowded dockets, too few judges and inadequate resources.  "The 2002 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary is my 17th," Rehnquist wrote.  "As I look back on these reports, I am struck by the number of issues that seem regularly to crop up, or perhaps never go away - judicial vacancies, the need for additional judgeships, judges' salaries, judicial appropriations."...[more]

On October 31, the Center for Individual Freedom sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) urging him to support President Bush's recent nonpartisan proposal to streamline and expedite the judicial nomination and confirmation process.

To read the Center's letter, click here.

•  Commentary 109th Congress
  
•  Commentary Archive 108th Congress
  
•  Commentary Archive 107th Congress

• INDEX:
  Commentary • Nominee Spotlight • Circuit Court Nominees
  District Court Nominees • The Senate Judiciary Committee

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