Battle rages over judgeships

WASHINGTON -- The battle over judicial confirmations was waged on two fronts on Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve President Bush's nomination of Janice Rogers Brown to a seat on the federal appeals court based in Washington and send it to the full Senate.

Within an hour of that victory, the Republicans tried and failed to win a vote in the full Senate that would have shut down a Democratic filibuster blocking a final confirmation vote on another of Bush's appeals court nominees, William Pryor Jr.

The political dimensions of the fighting over judges is increasingly on display. Republicans, who apparently believe that the issue will have some influence with voters, have scheduled a 30- hour, through-the-night session for next week to dramatize the issue. They say they will force the Democrats to debate their policy of blocking several of Bush's judicial candidates.

In addition, a Republican-financed group is running television advertisements this week in South Carolina criticizing Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a member of the Judiciary Committee, for his opposition to the Brown nomination. Edwards, a presidential candidate, is hoping to do well in the Democratic primary in South Carolina to demonstrate his strength in the South.

Brown, a conservative black member of the California Supreme Court who has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was approved by the Judiciary Committee on a 10- 9 vote, as have been many of Bush's judicial candidates.

But in the full Senate, even though the Republicans have a slim majority, the Democrats have been able to block several nominees by using a filibuster. While the Republicans have 51 votes in the 100- member chamber, 60 votes are required to break a filibuster. On Thursday, the only Democrats to break ranks and vote for Pryor were Sens. Zell Miller of Georgia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Democratic senators say there is little incentive for them to drop their strategy of opposing some Bush nominees because they have already exposed themselves to whatever political cost they might pay.

At the Thursday vote on Brown's nomination, Democrats said she was far out of the legal mainstream, citing the striking language in several of her speeches and court opinions.

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