The serious problem of Republican obstruction of President Obama's judicial nominees in is in full display now. Ironically, it's apparent because of
Democratic opposition to an Obama appointee. In order to keep Georgia's Republican senators from blocking him from appointing
any judges for vacancies in that state, Obama made a bad deal and gave them their pick on two nominations. One of them, Michael Boggs, is up for consideration this week.
Liberals are incensed that the administration is pushing hard for Michael Boggs, a judge on Georgia's state Court of Appeals, to join the federal bench in Georgia. Boggs, a conservative Democrat, voted while in the state Legislature to reinstate a version of the Confederate flag as the state flag, opposed same-sex marriage and took positions on abortion that critics say would have limited women's rights. […]
For years Georgia's two Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, have blocked Obama's judicial nominees from that state. Although the filibuster is no more, the two senators have been able to maintain their veto because of a procedure, called a "blue slip," adopted by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. […]
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider Boggs and other Georgia nominees Tuesday. Leahy is stepping aside to allow Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), an outspoken critic of Boggs, to lead the hearing. And the room will be packed with opponents from women's groups, gay rights groups and civil rights groups.
It's encouraging that Leahy is having Blumenthal lead Tuesday's hearing on Boggs, a nominee who any Democrat should be opposing. This is not a nominee who will represent Obama or further his legacy. And nominees like Boggs, as well as others Obama has essentially been forced to put forward, don't have to be approved. It's a matter of choice. Obama could choose not to accede to Republican demand if Leahy chooses to stop abiding by the blue slip tradition.
In the meantime, Boggs must be stopped. Please sign and send the petition: Reject Michael Boggs’s nomination to the U.S. District Court in Georgia.
