Judiciary Oath would ban Brownback's Action

Sen. Sam Brownback is blocking federal court nominee Janet T. Neff. Why? Has she committed an ethical violation? Has she been involved ina conflict of interest? Has she committed a crime? No! No! No! She merely attended a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple. Brownback says he only "wants to assure himself that she did not preside over an illegal marriage ceremony." He claims that it speaks to her "judicial activism." Republicans have criticized Democrats for blocking nominees of Mr. Bush and now a Republican is doing so on very little more than a personal decision to attend the ceremony.

This is the type of block that the Committee for Justice judicial oath would eliminate, which is a bad idea because it would also disallow blocks for legitimate reasons. However, there are other ways to alleviate this problem. Brownback is grasping at straws in order to play to the religious conservatives. He stretches his own credibility by doing this and it is only occurring because it is an election year and he wants to run for President in 2008.

(hat tip: TheAgitator.com)

Blocking Haynes a Good Move

EdWhalen reports that “According to a very knowledgeable non-Senate source, the news is much worse for Fourth Circuit nominee William Haynes: Senator McCain is committed to stopping Haynes’s confirmation, and Senator Graham, as a favor to Senator McCain, will keep the nomination from being reported out of committee. If this news is accurate, it would appear that there is no hope for Haynes’s nomination.?

Paul at Power Line analyzes this in the following manner: “

As I have argued, Haynes, an outstanding public servant, is being made the scapegoat for questionable legal advice provided by the Justice Department with respect to the interrogation of detainees. Haynes used that advice to provide guidance to the military, as he should have. If Haynes had provided legal advice inconsistent with the position of the Justice Department, he would have demonstrated a lawlessness that might constitute grounds for blocking his confirmation.

If McCain wants to punish an administration official for playing a key role in the development of our policy on interrogating detainees, a better target would be Attorney General Gonzales. The “offending? legal advice was prepared for Gonzales who then was the president’s counsel. Unlike Haynes, Gonzales arguably was in a position to cause the Justice Department’s position to be rejected.