Long-Delayed Confirmation of Judge Expected Today

Six hundred and forty-four days after she was nominated as a federal district judge, Los Angeles lawyer Margaret M. Morrow is expected to win Senate confirmation today.

Democrats hope the legislative sea change on Morrow’s long-pending nomination signals a break in the logjam on President Clinton’s judicial nominees that has caused a vacancy crisis on the federal bench. But many fear it simply reflects a Republican realization that Morrow, widely viewed as a moderate, was a poor choice as the poster child for a campaign against judicial activism.

“Some of the guys on your side think an activist judge is someone with a pulse and a heartbeat,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), gently chiding Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) in a Tuesday telephone call to double-check on his vote. (He is expected to vote aye.)

Boxer, who has led the effort on Morrow’s behalf, said she has lined up at least 55 votes--including those of Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and eight other Republicans--for the former head of the Los Angeles County Assn. and the State Bar of California.

“I think we’re fine . . . but I would be honored to have Olympia,” Boxer said over the phone to the chief of staff for Maine Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, who remains undecided. “It’s almost like, if [Morrow] can’t get through, who can?”

But even as a core of GOP senators lined up to support Morrow, opposition was swelling against the new target of Republican attacks on liberal jurists, Philadelphia Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson. Her nomination to the federal bench was debated for hours Tuesday by the full Senate, and opponents vowed to block it or send it back to the Judiciary Committee to die.

Although the GOP-controlled Senate has not rejected any of Clinton’s judicial nominees, many candidates have languished for months or years while awaiting hearings--delays that triggered uncommonly sharp criticism from Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist several weeks ago.

About a tenth of the approximately 800 positions on the federal bench are vacant.

In the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, which covers Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties, there are three openings among about 65 judgeships, and Boxer’s office expects two more vacancies this spring.

Stephan Kline of the left-leaning lobby group Alliance for Justice said he is buoyed by the Senate’s acting on two judicial nominees each week since the session began Jan. 27--more than in the first three months of the previous session, he said.

“Clearly there’s some change going on in the Senate,” Kline said. “I’m unsure whether [Republicans] are turning over a new leaf, or it could be just politics--they’ve been getting a lot of heat and they decided to respond to it . . . they’re just being strategic in how they pick their battles.”

Morrow, 47, has long been seen by some as a bad target for the judicial activism charge.

Backed by local Republicans--including judges appointed by Presidents Bush and Reagan and California Govs. Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian--she won unanimous support in the Judiciary Committee in June 1996 and sailed through a second hearing a year later after her nomination died because of delays and was resubmitted.

But conservative groups, led by the Judicial Selection Monitoring Project, have blasted Morrow for comments at a bar conference about the law being “on the cutting edge of social thought,” and for criticizing California’s ballot initiative process.

Also, the National Rifle Assn. raised questions about her role in a gun control debate while she presided over the state bar group. But the NRA recently backed off, saying it would not count a vote for Morrow against a senator in its annual performance review of politicians, a key litmus test for conservatives.

And Hatch, often a bellwether for the GOP caucus, wrote to colleagues last month urging support for her. “While I initially had some concerns that Ms. Morrow might be an activist, I have concluded . . . that a fair case cannot be made against her,” he said.

Sens. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) remain opposed to both Morrow and Massiah-Jackson, who is being attacked for being soft on crime and cursing in the courtroom. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Ashcroft said, “We should not respond to a perceived vacancy crisis with a lifetime appointment” for unworthy candidates.

Thomas Jipping of the Judicial Selection Monitoring Project said 180 grass-roots conservative groups continue to oppose Morrow’s selection.

“Some Republican senators make a mistake when they act as though they’re only allowed to oppose one nominee a year or something,” Jipping said. “It’s not a matter of either Morrow or Massiah-Jackson.”

Morrow, for one, isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Morrow, a partner in the Arnold & Porter law firm.

“I’m not going to talk about it as long as the nomination is pending before the Senate,” Morrow said when asked about the wait she has endured. “I really don’t want to have this conversation until this is over.”

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Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story.