USD Professor Rejected in Senate for Federal Bench

The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday voted down the nomination of University of San Diego law professor Bernard H. Siegan to serve on the federal appellate court in California, making Siegan the first of President Reagan’s appeals court nominees to be defeated.

Eight Democrats voted against Siegan, a conservative scholar and friend of outgoing Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, and six Republicans voted for him. A Republican effort to send the nomination to the Senate floor with an unfavorable recommendation failed on a 7-7 vote.

For the 63-year-old Siegan, the committee action meant the end of a lifelong dream to be a federal judge. Nominated 18 months ago, Siegan refused to withdraw despite repeated signals from the committee that he would not be approved.

For Reagan, the vote may mean that the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee will no longer approve controversial court nominees.

The rejection of Siegan “marks the end of the Meese era in judicial selection,” proclaimed People for the American Way, a liberal lobby group that has fought several Reagan court nominees.

“By voting against Bernard Siegan, the Senate Judiciary Committee has once again made clear that nominations made on the basis of ideology--not merit--are unacceptable to the American people,” said Melanne Verveer, vice president of the group.

In response, the conservative Free Congress Research and Education Foundation charged that Siegan was a victim of a “multimillion-dollar political campaign of lies, distortions and half-truths.” Jeffery D. Troutt, a director of the group, said: “Bernie’s only sin is that he believes that the Constitution means what it says.”

Real Estate Career

After a successful real estate career in Chicago, Siegan made a name for himself at the University of San Diego through a series of books and articles contending that environmental and economic regulations such as zoning are unconstitutional.

A student of constitutional history, Siegan also argued that the Supreme Court was wrong in 1871 when it agreed to permit the printing of paper money because the Constitution itself refers only to the making of “gold and silver coin.”

More recently, Siegan said that the high court was wrong when it outlawed state-sponsored school prayers and that the 1954 ruling banning school segregation was faulty.

Acting Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said that Siegan’s views are extreme and “out of the mainstream” of American law. Moreover, he said, the law professor’s libertarian approach to issues such as zoning would allow courts to get involved in all manner of local and state government decisions. Other Democrats cited Siegan’s lack of federal court experience in voting against him.

Republicans denounced the action as political. “It is a shame not to have someone of his qualifications and ability on the federal bench,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

In 7 1/2 years, Reagan has named 273 of the 575 judges in the three-tiered federal court system, according to the Congressional Research Service. In the middle tier--the appellate courts--81 of 164 judges have been appointed by Reagan.

Despite the liberal furor over some Reagan court nominees, few have been rejected. The Judiciary Committee blocked district court nominee Jefferson Sessions of Alabama in 1986, and the Senate defeated Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork last year. Daniel Manion of Indiana failed to win Judiciary Committee approval for his appeals court nomination in 1986, but he won by a single vote on the Senate floor.

Siegan’s defeat leaves three vacancies on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California and eight other Western states.