Word: pickeringã
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...case with the column by Jason L. Steorts ’01-’03 (“Picking on Pickering,” March 22). Steorts’ argument that Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is justified in his public threats of retaliation for Judge Charles Pickering??s defeat holds an embarrassingly low expectation of our leaders...
Finally, Steorts ought not complain about the number of judicial vacancies—during the Republican majority in the senate, judicial vacancies on the circuit courts grew by 250 percent. Steorts also claims to be “outraged” at the decision not to send Pickering??s nomination to the Senate floor after it was rejected by the Judiciary Committee. Yet the Senate has never done this for a district or circuit court nominee. While Senate leaders agreed to give floor consideration to all Supreme Court nominees, they refused to do this for district and circuit...
Critics of Pickering??s record on race also pointed to a 1994 cross burning case in which he encouraged prosecutors to seek a lighter sentence for one of the defendants. The critics, of course, told only half the story. What they failed to mention is that the individual in question had played a much smaller role in the crime than one of his co-defendants, who copped a plea and was charged with a misdemeanor. Pickering??s aim was not to defend cross burning, but to express concern for the apparent injustice of sending a lesser...
These are hardly the words of a racist judge. In fact, Pickering??s record not only refutes the charge of racism, but suggests he is an especially capable jurist. As Judiciary Committee member Orrin Hatch argued last Thursday, Pickering??s reversal rate is lower than both the national average and the average for district court judges in the Fifth Circuit. And, as Hatch noted, almost all of the matters on which Pickering was reversed were minor issues unrelated to the substance of the case (such as the precise determination of legal fees to be paid...
...real outrage of Pickering??s defeat, however, is not Daschle’s special brand of partisan uncooperativeness. Rather, it is the fundamentally antidemocratic tactics of Daschle’s leadership. I say “antidemocratic” because if Pickering??s nomination hadn’t died in committee, it likely would have been approved in a Senate floor vote, with as many as three Democratic Senators willing to break party ranks and support Pickering. Instead, the wiles of 10 senators managed to keep the democratically elected body invested with Constitutional authority to approve...