Senate Confirms Nomination of Filibuster Target

The Senate finally closed the chapter on the filibuster saga of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla R. Owen on Wednesday, formally confirming her nomination to a federal appellate court.

The mostly party-line vote was 55-43.

Democratic opposition to Owen and several of President Bush’s other nominees to the federal bench had pushed the Senate to the brink of a showdown over the use of the filibuster against judicial nominees.

But a compromise reached Monday night by seven Democrats and seven Republicans thwarted a GOP plan to change Senate rules to ban the filibuster for judicial nominees. The agreement also paved the way for the vote on Owen, who was first nominated by Bush four years ago.

“This vote should mark a new beginning here in the Senate -- a step forward for principle, fairness and the Constitution,” said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

Frist, however, caused consternation among Democrats by not quickly moving on to some of the six other judicial nominees who were ready for confirmation votes. Instead, he moved Wednesday to the president’s controversial nomination of John R. Bolton to be U.N. ambassador.

That left uncertain the scheduling of debates on the other nominees for the federal bench, who include California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown.

“We’ve been spending weeks and weeks” on the issue of judicial nominees, said Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “I again appeal to the Republican leadership in the Senate to get beyond this. Move on.”

Bush, applauding the vote on Owen, insisted that all his nominees should move forward to floor votes.

“I urge the Senate to build on this progress and provide my judicial nominees the up-or-down votes they deserve,” the president said in a statement.

In the confirmation vote on Owen, one Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), crossed party lines to vote against her.

Two Democrats voted in support of Owen, both of whom were signatories to Monday’s compromise agreement: Sens. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.V.) and Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.).

Byrd said he had supported the filibuster against Owen to protect the minority’s right to use the stalling tactic. But he said that in the end, he decided to support Owen because of her decisions requiring minors to seek parental guidance before getting abortions.

“It would have been a travesty to have permitted this cherished right of extended debate to be extinguished simply as the result of a political squabble over a handful of judges,” Byrd said.

Landrieu said that she voted for Owen to underline her support for the compromise agreement.

“This vote signifies the spirit of my good faith to the agreement that my colleagues and I reached on Monday evening,” Landrieu said. “It is my hope that the administration will show a similar good faith and consult with members of the Senate, both Democratic and Republican, prior to submitting future judicial nominations.”

California’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both voted against Owen.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) voted present and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) was absent.

Owen, 50, attended law school at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, graduating in 1977 at the top of her class, and worked in Houston for many years as a corporate lawyer. She was elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1994 in a campaign advised by Karl Rove, Bush’s top political strategist who now serves as the president’s deputy chief of staff.

Democrats, who scuttled Owen’s nomination in 2002 only to see the president renominate her this year, denounced her as an ideologue who infused her opinions with her personal opposition to abortion as well as her leanings for big business and against consumers.

Under Monday’s agreement, the seven Democrats pledged not to support further filibusters of nominations except in case of “extraordinary circumstances.”

In return, the seven Republicans pledged not to support Frist’s efforts to take away the minority’s right to filibuster a judicial nominee, a drive that came to be known as the “nuclear option.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Priscilla R. Owen

Age: 50

Birth date: Oct. 4, 1954

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Baylor University, 1975; law degree, Baylor law school, 1977

Experience: Texas Supreme Court justice, 1995-present; associate and partner, Andrews & Kurth law firm, Houston, 1978-94

Family: Divorced; no children

Quote: “The picture that some special-interest groups have painted of me is wrong.” -- in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2002

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times