Republicans Delay Votes on Appellate Nominees

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President Barack Obama's first two nominees for the appellate bench will have to wait another week to get a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Today Republicans exercised their right under committee rules to delay votes on Andre Davis for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and on David Hamilton for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. They also delayed a vote on Thomas Perez, nominated for assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The move, led by ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), follows a pattern of members of the minority party requesting as much time as possible to review most nominees. The delay is, so far, much shorter than those experienced by some Clinton and Bush nominees. And with the Democrats controlling 59 Senate seats, the three Obama nominees are expected to be confirmed.

Sessions said that Republicans have concerns about Hamilton’s rulings on the establishment clause as a judge for the Southern District of Indiana, and about Davis’ decisions to exclude evidence as a judge in the District of Maryland. Sessions did not cite a reason for delaying a vote on Perez, who worked in the Justice Department from 1989 to 1999, lastly as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/05/republicans-delay-votes-on-appellate-nominees.html