Hearing on the Nominations of Raymond Kethledge and Helene White to the Sixth Circuit

Statement of Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron

May 7, 2008, Washington, DC -- "During today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senate Republicans once again revealed their true focus: confirming agenda-driven nominees to lifetime appointments on the federal bench." 

"Judge Helene White, one of President Bush's two pending nominees to the Sixth Circuit, was nominated to the same court by President Clinton in 1997.  For four years, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing on Judge White's nomination, and she continues to hold the record for the longest pending federal judicial nomination in U.S. history.  Complaints by Senate Republicans that her nomination has been fast-tracked eclipse even a grand sense of irony, especially given their incessant footstamping at the slow pace of nominations in recent months." 

"Senate Republicans' sudden commitment to vigorously examining Judge White's qualifications strikes an impressive contrast to their past role as a rubberstamp for the president's picks, illustrated even today by their lackluster questioning of the other circuit nominee, Raymond Kethledge.  While we congratulate the Republican Committee members on their newfound appreciation for the importance of a nominee's record, Judge White, who has served as a state court judge for 27 years and has hundreds of published decisions available for review, provides a welcome change from a string of recent nominees with virtually nonexistent public records." 

"Today, the very same Republican Senators who excoriate Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for 'slow-walking' nominees have revealed their true agenda.  It is clear, now more than ever, that they are not concerned with filling vacancies.  Their myopic focus on extremist nominees is merely a means to rile up their partisan base."