Senator Patrick Leahy

A pro-family group is calling on the incoming chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to stop obstructing President Bush's judicial nominees and instead give them an up or down vote. Last week Senator Patrick Leahy unveiled his proposed agenda as the new Judiciary Committee chairman. In a speech at Georgetown University Law Center, the Vermont Democrat blasted what he called the Bush administration's "corrosive unilateralism" and vowed to "repair the damage done to our system of government over the last few years." But Jan LaRue, chief counsel at Concerned Women for America (CWA), notes that Leahy spent 99 percent of the speech attacking the president but only 30 seconds talking about the judicial confirmation process. "If Patrick Leahy cared anything about the Constitution," she says, "then he would respect the president's authority alone to nominate federal judges. The Senate has no such co-nomination authority, and Leahy should stop acting as if he's co-president." When Leahy "talks about the president building consensus by naming so-called 'mainstream consensus' candidates," the CWA spokeswoman points out, "this is the man who opposed Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court, and he opposed many other highly qualified nominees to the federal circuit courts of appeal." LaRue says Leahy has made it quite clear that he will oppose any judicial nominees who "don't fit his activism scorecard."