I thought the Republicans said that the filibuster had never been used before to block a Supreme Court nominee, or indeed even a federal judge. Therefore there were justified in threatening to remove the filibuster when democrats made the “unprecedented” move of using it to block Bush’s federal judicial nominees. Well I’m re-reading Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court, the interesting and well-written (if mainstream) book by Edward Lazarus, one of Justice Blackmun’s former clerks (sometimes we neo-confederate types read stuff other than defenses of slavery). On p. 100, he notes, in 1968,
Chief Justice Warren had tendered his resignation to Preisdent Lyndon Johnson and was set to setp down as soon as a succcessor was confirmed. Johnson nominated Justice Fortas to be the next Chief, but his confirmation stalled when conservative senators (furious over Fortas’s record in criminal cases and buoyed by allegations of impropriety) launched a successful filibuster. In October 1968, with his nomination doomed, Fortas had Johnson withdraw his name.”
Hmm. If I read this right, the Republicants filibustered the elevation of a sitting Supreme Court Justice to Chief Justice, not the nomination of a new Justice. But still, it makes the Republicans whining about Democrat filibusters just that.
3:46 pm on July 10, 2005
