The NYT Caucus Blog reports that a "coalition of conservative group leaders and opinion leaders" have sent a letter to Senate Republicans demanding a filibuster of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court. So much for the hearing process.
"We request that you will lead 40 or more senators to participate in a great debate that highlights all the issues that come to the fore with a Supreme Court nomination," says the letter, addressed to Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader from Kentucky.
The conservatives say their intent is not to kill the nomination, as Democrats used the tactic, but rather to provide for lengthier debate on its merits.
The signatories include a broad swath of the conservative movement, including evangelicals, gun-rights advocates, anti-tax leaders, anti-abortion groups, libertarians and local Republican leaders.
I can't get over the irony of them calling for a lengthier debate when the official debate hasn't even begun yet, but I guess that's another of those reality-based perspectives.
Thus far, the likely suspect to try it seems to be Texas Republican John Cornyn:
Texas Sen. John Cornyn wouldn’t rule out a filibuster of President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee this morning, but urged the Senate and public to "calm down" long enough to evaluate whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s is capable of meting out colorblind justice.
"We need to know ... whether she’s going to be a justice for all of us or a justice for a few of us," Cornyn said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. "Let’s review those 17 years of federal judicial history and let’s ask the nominee some questions."
Cornyn, who chairs the GOP’s senatorial campaign committee, said Republican senators "are not willing to prejudge – or preconfirm – any nominee, but are committed to a fair process and one that allows Judge Sotomayor to explain what the context is for all this and what her true feelings are."
The issue of filibuster is contentious. One of the bitterest fights of President George W. Bush’s tenure was over Miguel Estrada, a conservative Hispanic who was on a path to join the Supreme Court until Democrats blocked him from a seat on the influential Washington, D.C., appeals court, one step below the Supreme Court.
The filibuster Cornyn seems to now favor is indeed contentious, apparenlty even in Cornyn's own mind. The last time this came up, Republicans were in the majority, and this is what he thought about the filibuster then:
"I believe, about the process of reestablishing the precedent of majority rule that had prevailed for 214 years in the Senate, that would say any President's nominees, whether they be Republican or Democrat, if they have the support of a majority of the Senate, will get an up-or-down vote in the Senate. Senators who believe these nominees should be confirmed can vote for them and those who believe they should not be confirmed can vote against them." [Senate Floor Speech, 5/24/05]
"And we need to get a fresh start. And that means, I believe, an up-or-down vote for all presidents' nominees whether they be Republican or Democrat... We need a permanent solution to this problem. And I believe it should be along the lines that I suggested, that each president's nominees would be treated exactly the same and not dependent on who happens to take up the decision to block, in a partisan fashion, a bipartisan majority from being able to cast an up-or-down vote." [CQ Transcriptions "U.S. Senator John Cornyn Holds a News Conference on Judicial Nominees," 5/9/05]
I guess what he meant to say "any President's except Barack Obama's nominee, whether they be Republican or Democrat unless she's a Latina."