By Sean Mussenden
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON-North Carolina's two Republican senators on Thursday pressured Democratic leaders to schedule a confirmation hearing for a conservative North Carolina judge nominated for the federal bench almost a year ago.
Judge Robert J. Conrad was nominated by President Bush in July to fill one of four open slots on a federal appeals court that covers the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
"No individual should have their lives on hold for 338 days like Bob Conrad," Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said at a press conference. "It's time to lay politics aside and fill this very important vacancy."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chair of the Senate judiciary committee, said in an April letter to Burr and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., that he was working to fill a long list of vacancies in federal courts across the country that existed before Democrats recaptured the Senate in 2006.
"With your cooperation in the years ahead, I am confident we will be able to fill the remaining vacancies in the Federal courts in North Carolina," he wrote.
The four seats open on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he said, are a holdover from the 1990s. Republicans, then in control of the Senate, repeatedly refused to confirm judges nominated by President Clinton. Though Republicans controlled the Senate through much of the Bush administration, the seats have remained open.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond Law School, said the dispute delaying Conrad's confirmation is far bigger than one judge.
"We're just at the end of a long series of political paybacks on the 4th Circuit that go back to the Clinton administration, or even earlier," he said. "There's plenty of blame to go around."
Conrad, who currently serves as chief judge of a lower federal court in Western North Carolina, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Dole, however, complained that Conrad, "has not been given the courtesy of a hearing."
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., the top Republican on the judiciary committee, said he suspected Leahy did not have a problem with Conrad specifically.
"This is a concerted effort to keep these seats open" so that Barack Obama, should he win in the fall, could appoint less conservative nominees, Specter said in a brief interview.
Several reproductive rights groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, opposed Conrad's 2005 confirmation to a federal district court seat in Western North Carolina because of his conservative anti-abortion views.
He was confirmed to that seat only after former Sen. John Edwards, who opposed his nomination, was replaced by Burr in the Senate.
Several opposing groups have objected to a newspaper op-ed piece Conrad wrote calling Planned Parenthood a "radical, pro-abortion fringe group" and to his association with a pregnancy center in Virginia that gave misleading information about health risks associated with abortion.
People for the American Way, a progressive legal advocacy group that opposes Conrad, wrote in an April letter to Leahy that though the Senate had previously confirmed him to a lower federal court, it was important not to promote him.
"The court of appeals is literally the court of last resort for most Americans, given that the Supreme Court hears so few cases," group president Kathryn Kolbert wrote. "The stakes are thus far higher when an appellate nomination is considered."
Burr, in an interview, said he believed Leahy was acquiescing to groups like Kolbert's.
"Clearly, these outside groups have told Sen. Leahy, 'Don't do this,'" he said.
Tobias said he expected Leahy to hold a confirmation hearing for only one nominee to the 4th Circuit before the end of the year. That nominee, Judge Glen E. Conrad of Roanoke, Va., is supported by Virginia Sens. John Warner, a Republican, and Jim Webb, a Democrat.
"I wish they would fill the seats. The court needs to be at full strength," Tobias said.
The issue of vacancies in the 4th Circuit has already been raised in the presidential campaign.
During a speech in Winston-Salem, N.C., in early May, John McCain criticized Senate Democratic leaders for failing to move on the nominations to the 4th Circuit, which currently has a third of its slots open.
McCain needs to excite the Republican Party's conservative base if he is to win in November. Many conservatives follow judicial appointments closely, and analysts say they expect McCain to stress the issue at key moments in the fall campaign.
"The alarm has yet to sound for the Senate majority leadership. Their idea of a judicial emergency is the possible confirmation of any judge who doesn't meet their own narrow tests of party and ideology," McCain said in the speech.
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668.
Judge Robert J. Conrad was nominated by President Bush in July to fill one of four open slots on a federal appeals court that covers the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
"No individual should have their lives on hold for 338 days like Bob Conrad," Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said at a press conference. "It's time to lay politics aside and fill this very important vacancy."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chair of the Senate judiciary committee, said in an April letter to Burr and Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., that he was working to fill a long list of vacancies in federal courts across the country that existed before Democrats recaptured the Senate in 2006.
"With your cooperation in the years ahead, I am confident we will be able to fill the remaining vacancies in the Federal courts in North Carolina," he wrote.
The four seats open on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he said, are a holdover from the 1990s. Republicans, then in control of the Senate, repeatedly refused to confirm judges nominated by President Clinton. Though Republicans controlled the Senate through much of the Bush administration, the seats have remained open.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond Law School, said the dispute delaying Conrad's confirmation is far bigger than one judge.
"We're just at the end of a long series of political paybacks on the 4th Circuit that go back to the Clinton administration, or even earlier," he said. "There's plenty of blame to go around."
Conrad, who currently serves as chief judge of a lower federal court in Western North Carolina, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Dole, however, complained that Conrad, "has not been given the courtesy of a hearing."
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., the top Republican on the judiciary committee, said he suspected Leahy did not have a problem with Conrad specifically.
"This is a concerted effort to keep these seats open" so that Barack Obama, should he win in the fall, could appoint less conservative nominees, Specter said in a brief interview.
Several reproductive rights groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, opposed Conrad's 2005 confirmation to a federal district court seat in Western North Carolina because of his conservative anti-abortion views.
He was confirmed to that seat only after former Sen. John Edwards, who opposed his nomination, was replaced by Burr in the Senate.
Several opposing groups have objected to a newspaper op-ed piece Conrad wrote calling Planned Parenthood a "radical, pro-abortion fringe group" and to his association with a pregnancy center in Virginia that gave misleading information about health risks associated with abortion.
People for the American Way, a progressive legal advocacy group that opposes Conrad, wrote in an April letter to Leahy that though the Senate had previously confirmed him to a lower federal court, it was important not to promote him.
"The court of appeals is literally the court of last resort for most Americans, given that the Supreme Court hears so few cases," group president Kathryn Kolbert wrote. "The stakes are thus far higher when an appellate nomination is considered."
Burr, in an interview, said he believed Leahy was acquiescing to groups like Kolbert's.
"Clearly, these outside groups have told Sen. Leahy, 'Don't do this,'" he said.
Tobias said he expected Leahy to hold a confirmation hearing for only one nominee to the 4th Circuit before the end of the year. That nominee, Judge Glen E. Conrad of Roanoke, Va., is supported by Virginia Sens. John Warner, a Republican, and Jim Webb, a Democrat.
"I wish they would fill the seats. The court needs to be at full strength," Tobias said.
The issue of vacancies in the 4th Circuit has already been raised in the presidential campaign.
During a speech in Winston-Salem, N.C., in early May, John McCain criticized Senate Democratic leaders for failing to move on the nominations to the 4th Circuit, which currently has a third of its slots open.
McCain needs to excite the Republican Party's conservative base if he is to win in November. Many conservatives follow judicial appointments closely, and analysts say they expect McCain to stress the issue at key moments in the fall campaign.
"The alarm has yet to sound for the Senate majority leadership. Their idea of a judicial emergency is the possible confirmation of any judge who doesn't meet their own narrow tests of party and ideology," McCain said in the speech.
Sean Mussenden can be reached at smussenden@mediageneral.com or 202-662-7668.