Schumer to Fight Any New Bush High Court Pick

Now that the Dems are back in control of the Senate, the Schumer Doctrine is back in play:

New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush “except in extraordinary circumstances.”

“We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.”

Schumer’s assertion comes as Democrats and liberal advocacy groups are increasingly complaining that the Supreme Court with Bush’s nominees – Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito – has moved quicker than expected to overturn legal precedents.

Senators were too quick to accept the nominees’ word that they would respect legal precedents, and “too easily impressed with the charm of Roberts and the erudition of Alito,” Schumer said.

“There is no doubt that we were hoodwinked,” said Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Schumer's comments show "a tremendous disrespect for the Constitution" by suggesting that the Senate not confirm nominees.

"This is the kind of blind obstruction that people have come to expect from Sen. Schumer," Perino said. "He has an alarming habit of attacking people whose character and position make them unwilling or unable to respond. That is the sign of a bully. If the past is any indication, I would bet that we would see a Democratic senatorial fundraising appeal in the next few days."

Schumer voted against confirming Roberts and Alito. In Friday’s speech, he said his “greatest regret” in the last Congress was not doing more to scuttle Alito.

“Alito shouldn’t have been confirmed,” Schumer said. “I should have done a better job. My colleagues said we didn’t have the votes, but I think we should have twisted more arms and done more.”

While no retirements appear imminent, Bush still could have the opportunity to fill another vacancy on the court. Yet the two oldest members – Justice John Paul Stevens, 87, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 74 – are part of the court's liberal bloc and could hold off retirement until Bush leaves office in January, 2009.

Earlier this week, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said he was persuaded by a conversation with Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who spoke with Specter at the Aspen Institute gathering in Colorado this month, to study the decisions of the Roberts Court. The term that ended in June was notable for several rulings that reversed or chipped away at several long-standing decisions, delighting conservatives but enraging liberals.

Breyer has publicly raised concerns that conservative justices were violating stare decisis, the legal doctrine that, for the sake of stability, courts should generally leave precedents undisturbed.

“It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much,” Breyer said, reading his dissent from the bench in June to a 5-4 ruling that overturned school desegregation policies in two cities.

Schumer said there were four lessons to be learned from Alito and Roberts: Confirmation hearings are meaningless, a nominee’s record should be weighed more heavily than rhetoric, “ideology matters” and “take the president at his word.”

“When a president says he wants to nominate justices in the mold of [Antonin] Scalia and [Clarence] Thomas,” Schumer said, “believe him.”

From Fidelis:

Obstructionism Against Judges Must Be Stopped

CHICAGO — Promising to oppose any new nominee to the Supreme Court, New York Senator Charles Schumer delivered startling speech Friday to the American Constitutional Society declaring that he is prepared to block any new nominee should a vacancy occur on the Court. Schumer’s statements also signaled a willingness to cater to radical left wing groups who are urging Democratic members of the judiciary committee to block all of the Presidents judicial nominees, many of them now awaiting a hearing or a vote.

During the speech, Schumer said the confirmation of Justice Alito was one of his “greatest failings” as a Senator. Schumer also warned, "We should reverse the presumption of confirmation. The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance…Given the track record of this President and the experience of obfuscation at the hearings, with respect to the Supreme Court, at least: I will recommend to my colleagues that we should not confirm a Supreme Court nominee EXCEPT in extraordinary circumstances.”

Late last week Fidelis President Brian Burch appeared in an important press conference in Washington D.C. featuring Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), to call upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to stop holding up the nominations of well-qualified judges to the federal bench.

“In February 2000, Senator Leahy scolded the Republican-led Senate for their slow progress on confirming President Clinton’s judicial nominees saying, ‘The Senate is back to a pace of confirming one judge a month. That is not acceptable, does not serve the interests of justice and does not fulfill our constitutional responsibilities.’ We agree that a pace of one confirmation per month is not acceptable and we call upon the Senate to move forward with votes on pending judicial nominations,” said Brian Burch, President of Fidelis.

“Republicans in the Senate went on to confirm 15 of President Clinton’s nominees. In contrast, the Democrat controlled Senate has only confirmed three of President Bush’s nominees in the first six months of this year. This is barely half the speed of which Senator Leahy considered ‘not acceptable’ seven years ago. Chairman Leahy is perfectly positioned to rectify the injustice of denying qualified nominees an up or down vote,” said Burch.

Burch said it was clear that special-interest groups with a left-wing agenda have slowed down the confirmation process. “Long-standing vacancies in our federal courts are a major hindrance to justice. Senators have an obligation under the United States Constitution to provide ‘advice and consent’ not ‘admonish and impede,’” said Burch.

Democrats could prove their good will, said Burch, by moving forward with a vote on Judge Leslie Southwick for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Southwick, an Iraqi War veteran and a Catholic, has been the subject of baseless personal attacks. Fabricated accusations of insensitivity to blacks and homosexuals have been used to hold up his nomination. Some have even fought his nomination because he is not African-American.

Fidelis has also joined 59 other organizations in a letter delivered to individual members of the Senate Judiciary Committee objecting to the special interest driven attacks on Judge Southwick, and demanding that the Committee act on qualified nominees in a timely manner.

“Americans are already frustrated with this Congress. Senators refusing to give qualified nominees the courtesy of a vote are putting their political fortunes at risk, especially when they stand on the side of smear campaigns and obstruction,” said Burch.

Click HERE to support Fidelis and help stop the obstruction of qualified judges!

My Comments:
You just know that, deep down, Sen. Chucky is wishing that Chief Justice Roberts' recent health-related issues were more serious.

Fair enough. Deep down, I was probably wishing that, if some Justice had to have a seizure yesterday, it had been one of the more liberal ones.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
"Schumer Doctrine" Back in Play

Charles Krauthammer on the "Schumer Doctrine"

Up or Down - Religion, Filibusters, & Judges