Health Care

GOP Delay On Sotomayor Could Complicate Health Care

Brian Beutler | July 22, 2009, 2:12PM

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed by one week a scheduled vote on the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Prompted by committee Republicans, the delay is a procedural tactic, and a common one--other Judiciary Committee nominees, including Attorney General Eric Holder, and OLC chief-designate Dawn Johnsen, suffered similar obstacles, as have myriad Obama nominees in other committees.

But in a coincidence that will no doubt please health care reform opponents, the delay will almost certainly push a floor debate over Sotomayor's confirmation into August. And if leaders don't postpone recess, that will further imperil Democratic hopes of finishing a bill in the Senate before adjournment.

"We expected that," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid. "This is not going to impact our schedule at all."

Planned or not, though, the delay highlights the time crunch Senate Democrats have faced for weeks now. Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is reportedly seeking four days of debate over Sotomayor on the Senate floor. President Bush's Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito faced similar timeframes.

Senate Democrats are currently debating the 2010 Defense Authorization act, while the Finance Committee continues drafting a health care bill. If the Senate finishes work on the defense legislation before health care legislation has been finalized, and before Sotomayor has been reported out of committee, precious days will slip away as progress is made on neither.

Sonia Sotomayor

Sotomayor Vote Delayed Until July 28

Rachel Slajda | July 21, 2009, 11:45AM

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court on July 28, a week from today. The vote was originally scheduled for today, but Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) granted a delay request made by Republicans.

Leahy reportedly said he was disappointed in the stall, but still expects her to be on the bench for the Supreme Court's fall session. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the committee's ranking Republican, said he expects Sotomayor to be confirmed by early August.

In other news, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has announced she will vote for Sotomayor's confirmation. She is the fourth Republican to do so, after Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar and Mel Martinez.

Health Care

The Mark-Up, 07-20-2009

Brian Beutler | July 20, 2009, 6:26PM

TPMDC's update on the biggest initiatives on Capitol Hill.

• Health Care: The House Energy and Commerce Committee continues marking up the tri-committee health care bill into this evening. Still no word from the Senate Finance Committee, though we're constantly on the lookout for updates. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is marshaling its resources toward killing the bill.

• Nominations: Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to decide whether to report Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor out of committee.

Jeff Sessions

Sessions to Sotomayor: I Will Not Support A Filibuster Of Your Nomination

Brian Beutler | July 16, 2009, 3:32PM

Earlier today, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made it pretty clear that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will not be filibustered.

"I will not support--and I don't think any member of this side will support--a filibuster or any attempt to block a vote on your nomination."

That's even farther than Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was willing to go yesterday. Obviously other senators will do what they'll do, but it seems that, despite all the flame throwing, if Sessions has his way, Sotomayor will be confirmed before the August recess.

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor Explains The Many Dangers Of Ninja Nunchucks

Brian Beutler | July 14, 2009, 12:43PM

I suppose Republicans worry that there's a slippery slope between "they're taking our nunchucks!" and "they're taking our guns!" Or something.

Health Care

The Mark-Up, 07-13-2009

Brian Beutler | July 13, 2009, 5:31PM

TPMDC's round up of the biggest initiatives on Capitol Hill:

• Health Care: House leaders delayed the release of their health care legislation for yet another day as they paper over differences with more conservative members of the Democratic party. Meanwhile, with President Obama back from abroad, the White House is wading in to the debate on the Hill like never before.
• Nominations: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the first day of her week-long confirmation hearing. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said her nomination could send the court down a "dangerous path". And Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) lashed out at those who would dare criticize one of the New Haven firefighter's who's been recruited to testify against her. Read TPM's live blog of the hearings, where Andrew Pincus is cataloging and analyzing just about every key moment.


PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Topics: Health Care, House of Representatives, Senate, Senate Judiciary Committee, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court

Supreme Court

New Haven Firefighter Originally Hired By Claiming Discrimination

Brian Beutler | July 10, 2009, 1:26PM

Deserved or not, the biggest political thorn in Sonia Sotomayor's side has been one Frank Ricci of New Haven, CT. Ricci is a firefighter who sued the city claiming reverse discrimination in 2003 after officials there discarded the results of a firefighter's promotion test after the test was revealed to have a disparate impact on blacks and Hispanics.

But flash back, if you will, to January 25, 1995, when, according to the Hartford Courant Ricci was singing the opposite tune: "A decorated firefighter has filed a lawsuit against the city, saying he was not hired because he is dyslexic."

The lawsuit, filed recently in federal court, could shed light on the selection process used by the city, which has been beset with criticism over politics and nepotism.

Frank Ricci charges in the lawsuit that the city violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.

Ricci, a Wallingford native who now lives in Maryland, was one of 795 candidates who were interviewed for 40 openings. Ricci told interviewers that he has a learning disability, the lawsuit says.

Fire commissioners have said that although Ricci was qualified, many others also were qualified because they passed the Civil Service examination.

Two years later, that case was resolved. "In a confidential settlement, struck two years later, Mr. Ricci withdrew his lawsuit in exchange for a job with the fire department and $11,143 in attorney's fees."

If you were Frank Ricci, you might say something like, "Frank Ricci got a job and somebody who wasn't dyslexic didn't." Remember, this is the same Frank Ricci who took his reverse discrimination suit all the way to the Supreme Court, where lower court rulings against him--including one by Sotomayor's Second Circuit--were overturned.

Ricci will testify against Sotomayor before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week--this despite the fact that his views on jurisprudence seem to begin and end with the proposition that legal protections against discrimination are great when they work in his favor, and unconscionable when they don't.

Health Care

The Mark-Up, 07-09-2009

Brian Beutler | July 9, 2009, 6:00PM

TPMDC's update on the biggest legislative initiatives on the Hill:

• Health Care: The marathon mark-up of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee's health care reform bill continued. Meanwhile, with the idea of capping the health insurance tax exclusion now on ice, a Finance Committee staffer unveiled some of the other funding schemes the panel is considering.
• Climate Change: Looks like the Senate action on climate change legislation has been pushed back to September.
• Nominations: The Senate Judiciary Committee released the witness list for Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. The hearing will begin on Monday, stretching on for days. And the GOP has invited a few doozies to testify.

Supreme Court

Anti-Sotomayor Witness: A Vote For Sotomayor Is A Vote Against Regulating Abortion

Brian Beutler | July 9, 2009, 4:21PM

Either the pickings were slim, or Republicans didn't use much imagination when they selected witnesses to testify against Sonia Sotomayor at her confirmation hearing next week. They invited the legal experts New Haven firefighters, and they invited a Bush appointee who warned of Arab internment, and, it seems, they invited someone who wouldn't have been happy with any pro-choice nominee of any stripe.

"For all the President's talk of finding 'common ground,' this appointment completely contradicts that hollow promise," said Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, when Obama announced his first Supreme Court pick.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's judicial philosophy undermines common ground. She is a radical pick that divides America. She believes the role of the Court is to set policy which is exactly the philosophy that led to the Supreme Court turning into the National Abortion Control Board denying the American people to right to be heard on this critical issue....

A vote to confirm Judge Sotomayor as the next Supreme Court Justice is a vote to strip Americans of the ability to choose for themselves how to regulate abortion.

Read more »

Sonia Sotomayor

GOP-Approved Sotomayor Opponent Foresees Future Of Arab Internment Camps

Brian Beutler | July 9, 2009, 2:41PM

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from all sides next week about Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination, and, as we've already noted, the invitation list includes the Connecticut firefighters who've become a cause célèbre for conservative activists.

But the GOP has also called upon Peter Kirsanow--a Bush appointee who heads the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and testified on behalf of Samuel Alito four years ago--to question Sotomayor's fitness.

Who is Kirsanow, you ask? According to a 2002 Knight-Ridder report, he's this guy: "A member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said Friday that he could foresee a scenario in which the public would demand internment camps for Arab Americans if Arab terrorists strike again in this country."

If there's a future terrorist attack in America "and they come from the same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget about civil rights," commission member Peter Kirsanow said.

The reason, he said, is that "the public would be less concerned about any perceived erosion of civil liberties than they are about protecting their own lives."

Kirsanow, who was appointed to the commission last year by President Bush, said that he personally doesn't support internment camps and the government would never envision setting them up. He said he was merely saying public opinion would so strongly favor the idea that it would be difficult to prevent. There would be a "groundswell of opinion" for such detentions, he said.

Read more »

Supreme Court

In Response To GOP Allegations Of Racial Extremism Judiciary Committee Releases More Sotomayor Documents

Brian Beutler | July 3, 2009, 5:58PM

The Senate Judiciary Committee has posted documents to its website relating to Judge Sonia Sotomayor's tenure on the board of a group called LatinoJustice PRLDEF (formerly the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund).

The release comes on a holiday Friday after the committee's ranking member, Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL) called the group "extreme" and demanded the White House release them.

Yesterday, White House Counsel Greg Craig sent a letter to Sessions, calling his demands out of line. "You have now individually sought from a third party, LatinoJustice PRLDEF...documents that were not written, edited, reviewed, or approved by Judge Sotomayor," Craig wrote.

The documents you are now seeking are not relevant to her nomination, just as similar documents not written, edited, or approved by past nominees have not been viewed as relevant to the Committee's consideration of those nominees.

Anti-Sotomayor groups are no doubt poring over the memos, looking for controversial details, and, though the White House is quick to point out that Sotomayor isn't responsible for them, their timing and defensiveness indicates they may be concerned that some of the papers will be politically embarrassing.

Sotomayor's supporters and the White House have compared LatinoJustice PRLDEF to the NAACP Legal Fund and similar groups. For his part, Sessions once called the NAACP "un-American."

Sonia Sotomayor

Chuck Todd: Republicans Won't Boycott Sotomayor Hearings

Brian Beutler | June 10, 2009, 12:12PM

This morning on MSNBC, Chuck Todd poured some cold water on the suggestion that Republicans might boycott Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. Or at least he tried.

Todd may be right, but it's worth keeping in mind that Republicans have already boycotted the confirmation hearing of one Obama judicial nominee, and much, much more.

David Hamilton was nominated to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in March. Despite a record of moderation, Republicans boycotted his first confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, forcing a second hearing weeks later. After that they delayed a vote to report him out of committee and finally they voted in unison against moving his nomination to the full Senate. And, for good measure, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) is threatening to filibuster him.

Obviously there are important differences between the Appeals Courts and the Supreme Court, but it's probably not worth discounting the lengths to which Senate Republicans will go to drag out a confirmation process if they feel in any way slighted.

Sonia Sotomayor

Democrats Circulate Graph Dramatizing Republicans' Desire To Slow-Walk Sotomayor

Brian Beutler | June 9, 2009, 5:40PM

It's no surprise by now that Senate Republicans, including Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL), plan to make an issue of the time line of the Sotomayor confirmation process. Circulating on the Hill, though, is the below graphic, which shows just how dramatically Republicans would like to slow walk this nomination.

Read more »

Patrick Leahy

Sotomayor Hearing Scheduled For July 13

Brian Beutler | June 9, 2009, 12:24PM

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced on the Senate floor today that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on July 13. In an effort to head off expected criticisms, Leahy noted that this proposed time line mirrors that of Chief Justice John Roberts, whose entire confirmation process took about two months. "This is a schedule that tracks the process the Senate followed by bipartisan agreement in considering President Bush's nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court in 2005," Leahy said.

That agreement was reached before the Committee received the answers to the bipartisan questionnaire, and before the Committee had received any of the 75,000 pages of documents from his years working in Republican administrations. If 48 days were sufficient to prepare for that hearing, in accordance with our agreement and the initial schedule, it is certainly adequate time to prepare for the confirmation hearing for Judge Sotomayor.

Sotomayor provided the committee with answers to its questionnaire last week. Now the question is how amenable Republicans will be to this announcement. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. "There is no reason to unduly delay consideration of this well-qualified nominee," Leahy said. "Indeed, given the attacks on her character, there are compelling reasons to proceed even ahead of this schedule. She deserves the earliest opportunity to respond to those attacks."

Sonia Sotomayor

White House: Sotomayor Delivers Anything But Race-Based Justice--So Confirm Her Quickly

Brian Beutler | June 4, 2009, 2:44PM

Accompanying the release of Sonia Sotomayor's response (read it here) to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questionnaire, White House Counsel Greg Craig argues on the White House website that she should be confirmed quickly:

In an effort to advance her nomination through the Senate as swiftly as possible, Judge Sotomayor has completed her questionnaire faster than any Supreme Court nominee in recent history - in just 9 days. For historical context, it took Chief Justice Roberts 13 days, Justice Ginsburg 15 days and Justice Alito 30 days from the time they were designated to the time they completed their questionnaires. With her record of 17 years on the bench, this historically fast completion of the exhaustive questions is no small feat that will hopefully lead to her swift consideration by the Senate and enable her to be a member of the Supreme Court by the time they begin selecting cases in September.

Without eliding statements which have made conservatives froth at the mouth, Craig also plays up those aspects of her career on the bench which highlight her impartiality--a response of sorts to critics who accuse her of meting out race-based justice.

Impartiality in Judging: Judge Sotomayor said "It is very important when you judge to recognize that you have to stay impartial. That's what the nature of my job is. I have to unhook myself from my emotional responses and try to stay within my unemotional, objective persona." [Latinos in Law: Wonderful Life, 2000]

Read more »

Supreme Court

Judiciary Committee Recieves Answers From Sotomayor

Brian Beutler | June 4, 2009, 2:27PM

The White House has just sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a passel of documents which constitute her answers to the questionnaire the committee sent her just over a week ago.

The committee will post the documents here, but we're talking hundreds of pages, so the roll out won't be immediate. We'll look them over, when they're up--and so should you!

Supreme Court

Miranda: My Call For Filibuster Actually A Call For "Great Debate"

Brian Beutler | June 2, 2009, 6:16PM

Earlier today we brought you a letter signed by conservative Manuel Miranda and dozens of other activists calling for Republicans to consider a filibuster of Sonia Sotomayor. On Hardball tonight, though, Manuel Miranda characterized things a bit differently.

A "great debate" (followed by a sixty vote requirement for confirmation. Cough.) Chris Matthews insisted that what Miranda and other Sotomayor critics really want is to slow her confirmation process down, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, said he'd speed the confirmation process up if the unfair attacks continue.

Patrick Leahy

Leahy: Sotomayor Hearings Will Come Earlier If Racially Charged Smears Continue

Brian Beutler | June 2, 2009, 3:42PM

Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL)--the chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee respectively--may disagree about the overall timeline for the Sotomayor confirmation process. But now Leahy says if the Republicans want Democrats to speed the process along, all they have to do is keep smearing Sotomayor.

Tom Tancredo and Newt Gingrich aren't really the kind of people who acquiesce to this type of threat, but let's see what happens.

Sonia Sotomayor

Disgraced Miranda Repeatedly Calls Republicans 'Limp Wristed' For Not Breaching Ethics In Judicial Matters

Brian Beutler | June 2, 2009, 3:17PM

Manuel Miranda is, perhaps, the most vocal conservative calling on the GOP to filibuster Sonia Sotomayor--an ironic fact given Miranda's long history of opposing judicial filibusters. But he's also been the subject of a thorough investigation by former Senate Sergeant at Arms William Pickle.

Miranda became mired in controversy several years ago, after he and a fellow Senate Judiciary Committee aide distributed thousands of pages of Democratic memos--supposedly documenting the minority members' ties to liberal interest groups--to friendly reporters and conservative activists from late 2001 until early 2003.

The two aides--Miranda and Jason Lundell--worked in concert. Lundell had learned how to access private Democratic documents by observing the keystrokes of a young system administrator, who didn't realize that many files on the committee server were unprotected. Armed with an ill-begotten password, Lundell accessed reams of forbidden memos, which he brought to his superiors who initially scolded him and advised him to burn the evidence.

Enter Manny Miranda.

Read more »

Sonia Sotomayor

Leahy Meets With Sotomayor Tomorrow

Brian Beutler | June 1, 2009, 5:55PM

The Sotomayor confirmation process moves forward, however slowly, tomorrow when she meets with Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The two will host a photo op in Leahy's Senate office building at 11:30 and Leahy will brief the press after the meeting at noon.

Last week, the committee sent Sotomayor a broad questionnaire in anticipation of her coming confirmation hearing.

Sonia Sotomayor

Cornyn: Gingrich And Limbaugh Statements On Sotomayor Are 'Inappropriate' And 'Wrong'

Brian Beutler | May 29, 2009, 9:04AM

As if to magnify what are already major differences between elected Republicans and conservative activists on the question of Sonia Sotomayor, check out what conservative senator (and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Judiciary Comittee member and former Texas State Supreme Court Justice) had to say on NPR yesterday.

"I think it's terrible. This is not the kind of tone that any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advice and consent."

Republican leaders may not have as much sway over their own interest groups as Democratic leaders do over their, so don't expect the attacks to stop. But it's a bold statement. He even lashed out at Newt Gingrich and the unassailable Rush Limbaugh.

Read more »

Jeff Sessions

Sessions: Examination Of 'Ms. Sotomayor' Will Take Time

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2009, 4:08PM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has some thoughts on Sotomayor, too. "Of primary importance," he says, "we must determine if Ms. Sotomayor understands that the proper role of a judge is to act as a neutral umpire of the law, calling balls and strikes fairly without regard to one's own personal preferences or political views."

Pretty standard stuff. But then he warns that the confirmation process might last beyond the fall, when the Supreme Court begins its next term.

President Obama has stated his desire to have a full court seated at the start of its next term, a reasonable goal toward which the Judiciary Committee should responsibly and diligently move. But we must remember that a Supreme Court justice sits for a lifetime appointment, and the Senate hearing is the only opportunity for the American people to engage in the nomination process. Adequate preparation will take time. I will insist that, consistent with recent confirmation processes, every senator be accorded the opportunity to prepare, ask questions, and receive full and complete answers.

That's not outrageous, but it should be noted that the confirmation processes for Justices Roberts and Alito lasted about two and three months respectively. If that's the window Sessions has in mind, I'm sure Judge Sotomayor would be much obliged.

Late update: Just as a point of reference, when Roberts and Alito were under consideration in the Senate, Sessions took care to refer to both men as judges in his press releases.

Orrin Hatch

Hatch: I'm Now Concerned About Things Sotomayor Wrote Before I Supported Her Last Time

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2009, 4:06PM

Earlier today, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) called in to MSNBC to raise concerns about a judge whom he's supported twice.

Hatch cites, among other things, an article Sotomayor wrote in 1996--two years before he supported her confirmation to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. But, he says, the Supreme Court is a different thing altogether.

As a senior, and influential, member of the Judiciary Committee, Hatch will have significant sway over how quickly and smoothly the coming confirmation process moves forward.

Sonia Sotomayor

One Time Sotomayor Opponents Also Opposed Filibustering Judicial Nominees

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2009, 11:49AM

Earlier today, Eric Kleefeld reported that several still-serving Republicans had cast votes more than 10 years ago on Sotomayor's nomination to the appellate court. In 1998, 23 Republicans voted for confirmation. Eight of them (including now-Democrat Arlen Specter) still serve in the Senate today. At the same time, 29 Republicans voted against her, 11 of whom are still in office.

Among those 11 are several who, in addition to opposing Sotomayor also are on record opposing the idea that judicial nominations should be filibustered.

"Since the founding of the Republic, we have understood that there was a two-thirds supermajority for ratification and advice and consent on treaties and a majority vote for judges," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), in a floor speech on May 23, 2005. "That is what we have done. That is what we have always done. But there was a conscious decision on behalf of the leadership, unfortunately, of the Democratic Party in the last Congress to systematically filibuster some of the best nominees ever submitted to the Senate. It has been very painful." Sessions is now the Judiciary Committee's ranking member.

And there's more.

Read more »

Arlen Specter

Specter Hops On The Sotomayor Train

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2009, 11:13AM

It seems like just a few weeks ago, we wouldn't have expected this sort of reaction to the Sotomayor news from Sen. Arlen Specter.

I applaud the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Her confirmation would add needed diversity in two ways: the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the high court. While her record suggests excellent educational and professional qualifications, now it is up to the Senate to discharge its constitutional duty for a full and fair confirmation process.

Just imagine if Specter was still the Republican ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, fending off attacks from his right! Now he's a Democrat, though, and crawling slowly to the left. So his support for Sotomayor isn't all that surprising.

Sonia Sotomayor

Leahy To 'Work With Sessions' To Confirm Sotomayor

Brian Beutler | May 26, 2009, 10:39AM

"I will work closely with Senator Sessions as the Judiciary Committee prepares for confirmation hearings," says Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy about the Sotomayor nomination. "We are committed to ensuring that the next Justice is seated before the Court's term begins in October. I hope all Senators will treat this nominee fairly and will respect the Committee's confirmation process."

That's the ultimate question, right. Fortunately for Leahy, Sessions, and several other Republicans have a long record of opposing obstruction of judicial nominees, and Supreme Court nominees in particular. Unfortunately for Leahy, those sorts of records tend not to matter at all. Full Leahy statement below the fold.

For what it's worth, Sessions voted against her confirmation to the appeals court in 1998, but the question for now is whether the Republicans will filibuster her nomination, and whether Sessions will participate.

Read more »

Russ Feingold

Feingold To Obama: Preventive Detention Is Unconstitutional

Brian Beutler | May 25, 2009, 10:51AM

But Feingold was either holding fire, or the words he'd just heard hadn't settled in immediately. Because by the end of the week, a reservation had emerged. In a gentle, but resolute, letter to Obama dated Friday, May 22, Feingold says a key aspect of Obama's outlined detention policy is likely unconstitutional.

Read more »

Jeff Sessions

Sessions Aide Compares Gay Marriage To Pedophilia, Bestiality

Brian Beutler | May 19, 2009, 2:32PM

Last week, I noted that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the Republicans' brand new Judiciary Committee ranking member, is bringing an almost entirely new team of aides along with him to replace many of the staffers who backed up the committee minority when its ranking member was Arlen Specter.

In particular, I highlighted the case of Brian Benczkowski, who, in a previous life, was a key Bush administration figure tasked with covering up corruption in the Justice Department.

It turns out, though, that Benczkowski is just one in a series of elite picks. Among others, he's joined by one William Smith, the panel's new chief Republican counsel, who has a colorful history of his own. For instance, if you're wondering what sort of legal mind Smith brings to the powerful committee, you need look no further than this post, which contains his measured thoughts on Republicans--like former McCain adviser Steve Schmidt--who support gay equality.

Read more »

Arlen Specter

In Limbo: Dawn Johnsen's Nomination Stalls Thanks to Democrats

Brian Beutler | May 15, 2009, 11:44AM

For several weeks--while torture revelations have dominated headlines and with the scandal still very much alive--Dawn Johnsen has been waiting. She's Obama's pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel--the same Justice Department shop that famously blessed Bush-era interrogation policies--and her strong stance on that issue has united Republicans against her. But that's not her biggest problem. Her biggest problem is that Harry Reid has not been able to muster enough Democrats to overcome a filibuster threat.

Here are the numbers as they stand right now:

Votes Against Johnsen: 37 Republicans

Votes for Johnsen: 57 Democrats plus Indiana Republican Richard Lugar

Undecideds: Republicans Olypmia Snowe and Susan Collins and Democrats Arlen Specter and Ben Nelson

Reid frames the issue by saying he needs a couple Republicans to cross the line before he has the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. But as the numbers show, it's just as much an issue of Reid not being able to muster the entire Democratic caucus in support of Johnsen.

The nomination isn't dead yet, but with Reid trying to put the onus on the White House to shore up support for the beleaguered nominee and the White House staying mum about what it role in all this is, or should be, Johnsen's nomination isnt going anywhere fast.

Read more »

Jeff Sessions

Sessions Hires Torture, Wiretapping, Political Prosecutions Apologist As Key Aide

Brian Beutler | May 14, 2009, 11:44AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is bringing aboard an almost entirely new staff to back up the minority members on the Judiciary Committee. Among the senior aides is one Brian Benczkowski. Does that name ring a bell?

If it does, you're probably a long time reader of Talking Points Memo, and we salute you. Benczkowski was Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Michael Mukasey, and a key figure working behind the scenes to cover up corruption in the Bush Justice Department.

Read more »

Jeff Sessions

Blast From The Past: '80s News Coverage Of Sessions Controversy

Brian Beutler | May 8, 2009, 6:07PM

As we reported earlier this week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was spiked in 1986 from becoming a district court judge by the Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Sessions was known to be, at least, insensitive to minorities, and his nomination was considered too controversial to advance. Now that he's the ranking member on that very committee, it's news all over again. But it was a big deal then, too. Watch:

Yesterday we obtained over 500 pages of testimony from the 1986 hearings, and are still dutifully scouring them for interesting nuggets.

Jeff Sessions

Sessions Subordinate: I Thought I'd Be Fired If I Objected To Being Called 'Boy'

Brian Beutler and Eric Kleefeld | May 7, 2009, 4:05PM

When it became clear that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was poised to become ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, we recalled this 2002 article by Sarah Wildman which addresses some of the controversies that kept Sessions from being confirmed in 1986 as a U.S. District Court judge in Alabama.

Wildman writes in particular that the testimonies of two witnesses--a Justice Department employee named J. Gerald Hebert, and a black Sessions subordinate named Thomas Figures--helped to doom Sessions, then a U.S. Attorney, at his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings. According to Wildman, Hebert testified reluctantly "that in a conversation between the two men Sessions had labeled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) "un-American" and "Communist-inspired." And Figures--then an assistant U.S. Attorney--told the committee that "during a 1981 murder investigation involving the Ku Klux Klan, Sessions was heard by several colleagues commenting that he 'used to think they [the Klan] were OK' until he found out some of them were 'pot smokers.'"

Today we obtained a copy of the transcript of the Sessions hearings--over 500-pages worth--and it turns out there's quite a bit more. We're still going through it, of course, but the Figures testimony alone contains some damning details.

Read more »

Arlen Specter

After Stripping Him Of Seniority, Democrats Throw Specter A Small Bone

Brian Beutler | May 7, 2009, 10:56AM

There's been a lot of schadenfreude on the right (and to some extent on the left) about the fact that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has, at least for now, lost his seniority on various committees, particularly the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees.

But while that continues to be the case, Senate leaders have reportedly reached a compromise of sorts. Specter, according to The Washington Post, will assume the chairmanship of the Judiciary's Crime and Drugs Subcommittee. To make room for him, that subcommittee's current chairman--Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL)--will step down and assume the chairmanship of the reconstituted Human Rights Subcommittee.

It's a small bone--he's still lost much of his power on the pork-able Appropriations Committee--but they've thrown it to him. Just as Reid suggested they would yesterday.

Justice Department

Sessions: A Moderate On Judicial Nominees?

Brian Beutler | May 7, 2009, 9:14AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the freshly minted ranking member on the judiciary committee surprised Neal Cavuto last night by saying he could easily see voting for a pro-choice Supreme Court nominee.

Read more »

Jeff Sessions

Grassley: Sessions' Statements--If He Even Made Them--Don't Matter

Brian Beutler | May 5, 2009, 5:36PM

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who will in all likelihood take over the Senate Judiciary Committee from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) in 2011, said earlier today that the Alabama senator's past controversial statements--the NAACP is "un-American," the Klan are "OK" except for their pot smoking, and other gems--won't be of any concern.

Read more »

Senate Judiciary Committee

Acquitted Voting Rights Activist: 'Why Would You Promote Sessions?'

Brian Beutler | May 4, 2009, 4:14PM

Back in the spring of 1986, after having successfully appointed scores and scores of conservative judges to serve on courts across the country, President Ronald Reagan went too far. He picked a federal prosecutor to a fill a vacancy on the U.S. District Court in Alabama whose nomination was so controversial that it got quashed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.

That prosecutor was Jeff Sessions, the senator who, in all likelihood will serve as that committee's most powerful Republican for the next year and a half.

But back to 1986. During the debate over his nomination, committee Democrats questioned Sessions' prosecutorial discretion, focusing in particular on a case he pursued against three Marion, AL civil rights workers--Albert Turner, Turner's wife Evelyn, and Spencer Hogue, Jr.--whom he accused of voter fraud. Sessions was unconcerned with claims of fraud outside the so-called Black Belt, but he alleged that the trio had falsified absentee ballots in Perry County during the 1984 election. After conducting an exhaustive investigation, though, he was able to account for only a small handful of questionable examples, and even those he couldn't pin on his defendants, who were acquitted after only a few hours' deliberation.

Albert Turner--who was an adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr.--passed away in 2000, and his wife could not be immediately located, but Hogue still lives in Marion, and by phone today he expressed his displeasure with the news that Sessions is, in effect, getting a promotion.

Read more »

Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Who Praised Segregationist Judges Will Lead Opposition To Obama Nominees

Brian Beutler | May 4, 2009, 12:43PM

As I noted below, it looks like Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) will be, at least for a time, the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee. That's an interesting role for a man with Sessions'...history. In a 2002 New Republic article, Sarah Wildman detailed the Alabama senator's rise through the ranks of politics in Alabama and in Republican Washington.

Sessions first appeared on the scene in 1986 D.C. when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to serve on the U.S. District Court in Alabama. At the time, the Judiciary Committee was controlled by Republicans, but his appointment nonetheless went absolutely nowhere--a fact that may have had a thing or two to do with stories like this:

Read more »

Arlen Specter

Far Right Sen. Sessions To Take Over For Specter On Judiciary Committee...For Now

Brian Beutler | May 4, 2009, 11:25AM

In a grand bargain of sorts for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) will take over as ranking member on the Judiciary Committee for the remainder of this Congress, and give way in 2011 to the Iowa Republican. According to The Hill, Sessions "will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend."

Under terms of the deal, Sessions will serve as ranking member until the 112th Congress, when he will take over the ranking member post on the Senate Budget Committee. Current Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) is retiring at the end of the 111th Congress.

Grassley--who's senior to Sessions--will be forced to abdicate his seat as ranking member of the Finance Committee when he comes up against term limits in the 111th Congress. He's stated in the past that he'd prefer to become the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee than on the Budget Committee, but before today's deal, it looked like he'd have to choose between taking over for Specter on Judiciary Committee now, or taking over for Gregg on the Budget Committee next Congress.

Read more »