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Sunday, December 26, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Let it move forward
Senator threatens to hold up nominees.
Two weeks after recommending the president appoint U.S. District Judge Johnnie Rawlinson to the appeals court, Sen. Harry Reid released his selections for three other federal judgeships.
On Wednesday, Sen. Reid announced that U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt, Henderson Justice of the Peace Kent Dawson, and attorney Eve Garcia-Mendoza were his choices to fill three federal judicial openings in Las Vegas.
As the senior Democrat in the Nevada delegation, Sen. Reid by custom makes such recommendations as long as a Democrat is in the White House.
The four nominees -- all Democrats -- must still be approved by the Republican Congress. Sen. Reid says he doesn't anticipate any difficulties -- particularly if his nominees follow his silly advice about not talking to the media -- but his optimism isn't realistic.
Earlier in the week, Sen. James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said he'd hold up all judicial nominees through the end of the year. Sen. Inhofe claims he's retaliating because the White House last week broke a deal (there's a shocker) it made to notify Congress of any potential recess appointments. In addition, he said that given the Bill Clinton's lame-duck status, he'd rather defer appointments to the next president -- obviously hoping a Republican wins the 2000 election.
"Even if Inhofe's concerns in this instance can be resolved, the judicial nominees may have rough going as more and more senators adhere to a modern constitutional interpretation that says every senator must approve each nominee," The Washington Post reports.
Putting that aside, Sen. Inhofe is going too far. The Constitution gives the president the right -- with the advice and consent of Congress -- to fill the judgeships. Mr. Clinton retains that power through the end of the year, regardless of whether he is permitted to run for re-election or not. The Senate has a right -- indeed, a duty -- to reject nominees it finds objectionable. But such decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, not as part of an arbitrary effort at one-upmanship.
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