Mississippi Federal Judge Charles Pickering is getting another shot at a U.S. Circuit Court

The Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald ^ | 09/25/03 | STEFANIE MURRAY

[bedolido]

WASHINGTON - Mississippi federal Judge Charles Pickering is getting another shot at a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seat, and this time it looks like the deck may be stacked in his favor.

In what Capitol Hill observers are calling an unprecedented move, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah will ask the Senate Judiciary Committee today to approve Pickering's nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans without another committee hearing.

Pickering's nomination was rejected last year when Democrats controlled the committee. The nomination was fiercely debated in two Judiciary Committee hearings in which Pickering's opponents charged that he was a racist and holds conservative religious and anti-abortion views that would prejudice his decisions.

But this time, in a new GOP-controlled Senate, Republicans are confident that Pickering's nomination will make it through the committee and to the Senate floor.

"I'm very hopeful that Judge Pickering will be confirmed," said Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. "He has had a very distinguished career in Mississippi and is very competent and well respected."

Some say Pickering, who is a U.S. District Court judge in Hattiesburg, deserves to be considered by the full Senate.

"Judge Pickering has already had two lengthy committee hearings, but he was never given the full consideration he deserves," said Margarita Tapia, a spokeswoman for Hatch.

During the Judiciary Committee hearing today, the 19 members could either vote on Pickering's nomination or decide to delay the vote until next week. If the committee approves the nomination, it would go to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

However, Capitol Hill observers say it's unlikely the committee will vote today because Democrats will likely ask that it be tabled and the slim Republican control of the Senate doesn't necessarily mean the nomination is much closer to Senate confirmation.

Hatch's bold move to push Pickering's nomination through the Judiciary Committee again has ruffled the feathers of many people who opposed the nomination last year and thought the rejection was a done deal.

"This is yet another example of trying to pack the courts with right-wing ideologues and individuals who are not suitable to serve," said Nancy Zirkin, deputy director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. She was surprised by Hatch's move and suggested the obvious reason that Hatch brought up the nomination again was because Pickering's name has a chance of squeezing onto the Senate floor with a party-line committee vote.

Senate Judiciary Committee http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/

Justice Department, Information on Judge Pickering http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/pickering.htm

[Kewlhand`tek]

why bother the repugs will just roll over and let the dems deny him

[bedolido]

if they get him out of commitee to the senate floor, He will pass. I believe a simple majority is all that's needed.

[Kewlhand`tek]

that is what was needed with estrada and he go it...but was he confirmed?

[rface]

good find - interesting twist

[Uncle Hal]

Well, I hope the GOP leaders in the Senate do a better job of getting him approved. There is no use nominating him again if he is going to fail and the Dems successfully filibuster.

[pogo101]

Republicans are confident that Pickering's nomination will make it through the committee and to the Senate floor.

Where it will join the list of filibustered nominations (even after Estrada's exit): Owen, Kuhl, Pickering ...

At the very least, the Dems will hang him up for months and months.

[You Dirty Rats]

Simple majority? Try 60 votes to beat Cloture.

[bedolido]

Where it will join the list of filibustered nominations (even after Estrada's exit): Owen, Kuhl, Pickering ...

I guess I'm confused. I thought once they made it thru commitee the entire senate would then vote. I'm probably wrong on this, but I thought none of the ones you mentioned got out of commitee. Did the filibusters take place in the commitee or on the floor?

[freedomcrusader]

On the floor - all the mentioned judges made it through committee.

[jf55510]

I guess I'm confused. I thought once they made it thru commitee the entire senate would then vote. I'm probably wrong on this, but I thought none of the ones you mentioned got out of commitee. Did the filibusters take place in the commitee or on the floor?

They were all passed out of committee, but are being filibustered by Dems on the floor.

[bedolido]

BLATT!!!!

[Guillermo]

Unless the Dems choose to filibuster.

I'm sure they will, since Pickering has been to church in the last 5 years.

[pogo101]

My memory is that Owen and Kuhl were voted out of committee 11-10 (in Owen's case, on the second vote, after being shot down by the then-Demo-majority committee on the first one), but that several efforts to end debate on, and vote on, their actual confirmations have been filibustered or semi-filibustered.

It IS confusing. But unfortunately, getting out of committee is not the end, or even the beginning of the end, but only the end of the beginning. (Apologies to Churchill.) It's when they're out of committee that the filibustering starts.

[WOSG]

Unless the Dems choose to filibuster. I'm sure they will, since Pickering has been to church in the last 5 years.

Ouch - so true. even for a 'proud infidel' you know the score.

Howard Dean wants to 'take this country back from fundamentalist preachers'. Well, fundamentalists are just Christian Bible believers. So Howard Dean is of the opinion that America's problem is too many believing Christians having influence on US politics. Scary that he beleives it.

[Guillermo]

All the lefties believe that.

Only a few are willing to vocalize it, but they're becoming more prevalent.

[ZULU]

How can this occur if the Repubs lost on the Estrada issue?
Won't the Dems just philibuster and the Repubs chicken out of enacting the alternatives.

[bedolido]

Pickering, whose nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was defeated by a Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee last year, is expected to have the support of all 10 Republicans on the committee, while the 9 Democrats will most likely vote against his confirmation.

Quote from Senate Vote on Pickering Confirmation Likely to Come in October

I still may be confused, but it sounds like Pickering can now make it out of commitee. I understand he will probably face a filibuster.

[pogo101]

oh, that -- yeah, it looks like they'll ram Pickering through. They delayed him again today by invoking a once-per member rule of courtesy, although Hatch has taken to revising that rule as a "once per NOMINEE" rule because the ten Democrats were trying to use the rule once EACH, thereby denying hearings and votes (in committee) for 10 or more weeks.

It IS confusing, and I'm not being patronizing: I get confused regularly.