Strange Justice

LATE in the afternoon on Thursday, March 14, in a crowded hallway in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Bruce Cohen, a top aide to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, warmly greeted Elizabeth Cavendish, the legal director and general counsel of the National Abortion Rights Action League. “Thank you,” said Cohen. “No, thank you!” said Cavendish, smiling and grasping Cohen’s hand.

The cause of the smiling and thanking was the defeat, just minutes earlier, of the nomination of Charles Pickering to a place on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The committee’s narrow Democratic majority, led by Leahy, killed the nomination on a 10—9 party-line vote. What made the exchange between Cohen and Cavendish noteworthy was that a good deal of the debate leading up to the vote had concerned the role that liberal groups such as N ARAL, People for the American Way, NOW, the Alliance for Justice, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights were playing in the opposition to the Pickering nomination.

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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LATE in the afternoon on Thursday, March 14, in a crowded hallway in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Bruce Cohen, a top aide to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, warmly greeted Elizabeth Cavendish, the legal director and general counsel of the National Abortion Rights Action League. “Thank you,” said Cohen. “No, thank you!” said Cavendish, smiling and grasping Cohen’s hand.

The cause of the smiling and thanking was the defeat, just minutes earlier, of the nomination of Charles Pickering to a place on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The committee’s narrow Democratic majority, led by Leahy, killed the nomination on a 10—9 party-line vote. What made the exchange between Cohen and Cavendish noteworthy was that a good deal of the debate leading up to the vote had concerned the role that liberal groups such as N ARAL, People for the American Way, NOW, the Alliance for Justice, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights were playing in the opposition to the Pickering nomination.