In the spring of 2005, the President had nominated some radical right-wing judges to sit on some of the nation's circuit courts of appeal...at the time, the Democrats in the Senate were threatening to filibuster those nominees on the Senate floor to prevent a vote on their confirmation.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) took to the Senate floor on May 11, 2005 to denounce the Democrats' threatened use of Senate stall tactics to prevent an up-or-down vote:
I serve on the Judiciary Committee. We have had these individuals in front of us, in some cases, for 4 years. They are well known to this body, to the people here, and they have been fully vetted. The reason they are at this point in getting through is they are extremely well qualified. There may be philosophical differences with them, but if they are allowed to have a vote, they will be confirmed because they are well qualified.
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What I am pointing out is, while the Democrats can take this tactic, it is going to force a response which would be legal by a Republican majority in the Senate, by the President, but all of which is unsatisfactory and not right. We ought to be voting on these judges.
Fast forward to today, when the same Sen. Brownback who decried the Democrats' stalling on the President's judicial nominees is, himself,
stalling on a nominee. And why? Because she appears to not hold the same "homosexuality is evil" attitude that drives Sen. Brownback.
A Republican senator is holding up a Michigan judge's nomination to the federal bench because she reportedly helped lead a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple in Massachusetts four years ago.
Apparently,
Janet T. Neff, a judge on the
Michigan Court of Appeals and the President's nominee to a seat on the
United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, is a friend of Karen Adelman and Mary Curtin, a same-sex couple who had a commitment ceremony in Massachusetts in 2002. The commitment ceremony, which in 2002 had no legal impact in Massachusetts or elsewhere, was performed by an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. Judge Neff assisted in leading the ceremony.
To clarify: Judge Neff went to a commitment ceremony for two of her friends in 2002. She was, presumably, asked to participate in the ceremony, and she did. She issued no orders; she made no rulings; she granted no rights or privileges. Nothing about her participation granted any rights to the same-sex couple, or took away rights from anyone else in Massachusetts.
And yet, here is Sen. Brownback, single-handedly holding up a judicial nominee for a district a whole time-zone away from his state, screaming about "judicial activism."
"It seems to speak about her view of judicial activism," Brownback said. "That's something I want to inquire of her further."
Her view of judicial activism? WTF? There was no case before her; she made no law; she issued no ruling. She went to see two friends of hers promise to love and care for each other in front of all of their family and friends.
Not that it should be a surprise to anyone, but Sen. Brownback is a hypocrite.