A COURT OF HIS OWN
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James Joyner | Thursday, October 30, 2003 |
Brett Marston doesn’t know what to make of Bob Novak’s complaint that the Senate Democrats are using “an unprecedented filibuster campaign to prevent a sitting president from selecting his own judiciary (Emphasis added).” Writes Brett,
Slip of the pen? Sense of Republican entitlement? Commitment to the imperial presidency? Woeful constitutional ignorance? Conscious distortion? You decide.
I’m not sure Novak’s language is the most politic way of putting it, but it sounds about right to me. Why else give the power of appointment to presidents if not so that they can select judges that match their political philosophy? That practice was ongoing from the earliest days of the Republic–see the controversy that led to Marbury v. Madison, for example. The Senate’s role in confirmations is a check on presidents putting cronies, criminals, and the otherwise unfit into positions of responsibility; it’s not supposed to be an equal say. Indeed, if the Framers had wanted judges picked simply on their merits with no regard to political leanings, why have a single politician appoint them rather than, say, the House of Representatives? (I’d say a judicial commission, but I don’t think that sort of institution was in use in those days.)
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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