Bench Memos

Short Memories

TAPped’s Jeffery Dubner finds it absurd that Republicans complain about the blocking of Bush’s judicial nominees because Senate Republicans blocked and delayed some of Clinton’s. Yet neither Dubner nor his colleagues ever makes mention of the Democratic obstruction of Reagan and Bush I nominees. No, I’m not just talking about Bork and other defeated nominees. Rather, there are plenty of individuals who were nominated and stalled by the Democratic Senate, including John Roberts and Terrence Boyle, both of whom were first nominated by the first President Bush, and both of whom were refused votes in the Democratic Senate. It’s great that the Left now believes that “It is completely unfair to those who want to serve their country to have to wait months or even years without knowing if they will have a job or not.” It’s too bad that Senate majorities have not treated nominees of another party’s President that way for the past 20 years.

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. His books include Business and the Roberts Court and Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane.
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