Brownback removes his block on the Neff nomination
This was the right decision by Brownback. Every judicial nominee deserves an up-or-down vote within a reasonable period of time, and it was inappropriate of Brownback to attempt to condition his vote on Neff agreeing to recuse herself from any gay marriage cases.
I have to say though, I am not at all heartened by what I’ve read about Neff thus far. In a nutshell, she does not strike me as a judicial conservative, and one is only left to wonder why in the world President Bush nominated her in the first place.
Well, the president did nominate Harriet Miers, so I guess that explains the Neff nomination (in part), now doesn’t it?
December 20th, 2006 at 9:50 am
The Neff nomination may also be explained by peculiar wranglings with Michigan nominations, going back to Clinton’s nomination of Helene White, which was blocked by then-Michigan senator Spencer Abraham. Bush also had a batch of Michigan nominees that didn’t make it, most notably the Honorable Henry Saad of the Michigan Court of Appeals, who withdrew his nomination after years of waiting. (Judge Saad would have been phenomenal on the Sixth Circuit, by the way.) I suspect that Neff is part of some compromise to get other Michigan nominees through.
December 20th, 2006 at 9:57 am
I don’t understand Brownback’s move on this at all. Judges are expected to be able to set aside their personal views when they become judges. If Neff thinks gay couples are cool, that’s her opinion and she shouldn’t be expected to recuse herself.
The best explanation I see is that Brownback is either pandering or he’s of the view that conservative opinions can be set aside in service of the law, but liberal opinions can’t.
I don’t know much about Brownback, but when of his first public moves in anticipation of running for president is this sort of thing, I don’t like what I see.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:26 pm
TO, the reason one might have moer confidence in the abilit tro set aside opinon for conservatives rather than liberals is that the entire core of conservative legal philosophy is setting aside one;s peronsal views where liberal jurists are quite open about using their policy preferences in making rulings.
December 21st, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Arrg on the atrocious spelling. See what happens when you want to post five minute before a client meeting?